If I Never Knew
by the-fairy-godmother
Summary: AU. The world is stark white and sterile, and they keep you in a cage. They don't even call you by your name, only a number, and whats worse they've taken the most precious thing from you. Your memories. How will you exist without knowing who you are and what you can do with only a touch. ROMY
1. Chapter One

Hello everyone, i have decided to re-edit this story, as there are some things that i am unhappy with.

This story will follow the primary story arc of evo, with a few exceptions.

-Gambit did not have much of a part in evo, he was retained slightly by Magneto for odd-jobs but never really encountered any of the x-men

-Rogue was a junior when Scott and Jean were seniors and all other students were in the years below.

-Apocalypse awoke at Jeans Graduation, and fell 6 months later, so this story is set six months after that.

hope you enjoy

TFG

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

Once glance around and it would be easy to tell that this was a joyous day. The football pitch of Bayville High School was completely crowded with families in their very best clothes, all snapping photos, while the graduating class were in their maroon caps and gowns. It was an absolute glorious summer's day, courtesy of Ororo Munroe of course, and the atmosphere was one of pride and excitement. The crowds were all smiling and cheering as each individual student was called up onto the podium to accept their High School Diploma, a symbol of all the hard work that they had put into their formal school years. But the loudest cheers came from a small section of the stands as a girl with two-toned hair got up.

Rogue looked up embarrassedly as she saw her pseudo-family, all the X-men, cheering her on. She had expected Logan and Kurt to be there, and maybe the professor, but not all of the X-men, which included all the new and younger recruits. Their joy was entirely focused on her as she was the only one from the institute graduating that year. Scott and Jean had graduated the year before with a rather interesting ceremony, while Kitty and Kurt were graduating next year, along with some of the newer X-men. When she eventually arrived at the stand she was cautiously handed her diploma by the new principle. Even though she was wearing gloves and had a small grasp of control on her absorption powers the principle was still absolutely terrified that she would kill him. That was one thing Rouge was not going to miss, the fear and hatred that followed her through the hallways of Bayville High. Rogue looked up as she walked away from the principle and gave a very uncharacteristic smile and wave to the stands before descending the steps off the podium and going back to her seat while her photo was taken by the countless mutants in the stands.

After the speeches had finished, and the last ex-student had accepted their diploma and everyone collected on the field had tossed their caps into the air Rogue made her way over the stands entirely undisturbed. All the other students were still far too scared to come anywhere near her, and even went as far to give her very dirty looks as she made her way over to her guest. It felt like they didn't feel she deserved to celebrate this day with them even though she had worked harder than anyone else to get there. Rogue smiled to herself as she walked over, she sure wasn't going to miss any of these narrow minded people. And though she knew that she would still have to deal with some people like that Rogue did hope that New York University wouldn't have that many.

As she approached everyone who had come to see her graduate she was engulfed in many hugs and several congratulations were screamed in her general direction while everyone else around them narrowed their eyes at the mutant display of pride and happiness. But not one of the collected mutants seemed to care. They had all had a very eventful year and no one deserved this as much as Rogue did and ever mutant on that field was going to make sure this day was going to be incredible special for her. After all, the girl had saved the world. Though that didn't stop the stares and the whispers that followed her everywhere she went.

It took a great deal of organisation and death threats to get everyone back to the mansion in one piece, while Logan was given the task of distracting Rogue by taken her back into the city on his motorcycle. It was a long argument as Kurt wanted to take his sister out just as much as Logan did. In the months after Apocalypse's defeat both Rogue and Kurt had become even closer. They had developed a real sibling relationship; Kurt had even taken Rogue over to Germany last Christmas so his parents could finally meet her.

The argument between Logan and Kurt was fierce but inevitably Logan had won, but it didn't stop the angry look on Kurt's face as Logan and Rogue climbed onto the back of his vintage Harley Davidson motorcycle while Kurt climbed into the back of Scott's convertible. He knew Rogue would love the surprise that Logan had planned as she shared his desire for fast motorcycles and had tried on several occasions to steal his classic Harley Davidson. She had succeeded several times much to the annoyance of all the boys who lived at the mansion who had also tried the exact same thing. They all also knew that she was the only one who could actually get away with it.

Logan claimed the trip back into the city was for her belated birthday/graduation gift, even though he refused to tell her what it was. The trip was in fact an opportunity to get the Mansion ready for Rogue's surprise bleated birthday/graduation party.

Her actual eighteenth birthday had been two months ago. Unfortunately there had been an anti-mutant movement by a group called the "Friends of Humanity" and so they had spent the three weeks around her birthday trying to keep peace and saving other mutants. There had been a rumour that Sgt. Trask, the man responsible for the sentinel programme, had escaped and had joined that group. So, the more experienced group of X-men had spent that time gathering up as much information as they could but so far none of the rumours had been verified. Though, there was another set of rumours that several mutants had been disappearing around that time, but again they had no evidence to support that. As a result the entire population of the Mansion had decided to give Rogue a huge surprise party today to make up for it.

Logan was more than happy to take Rogue out while everyone else got everything set up. There was also another reason for taking her alone, he didn't want anyone to see the present that he had gotten Rogue as he had a feeling he might get slightly emotional. And Logan had spent a lot of time cultivating his reputation as a complete hard ass and he didn't want anyone to see him cry as he presented his pseudo-daughter with the perfect gift.

"So Logan, not that I don't appreciate this break from insanity, but what we doing here anyway?" Rogue eventually asked after savouring her grandee vanilla latte in the small coffee and book shop that she used as her escape from all the crazy that her life encompasses. She had taken off her cap and gown and was now wearing a nice deep green wrap around blouse, with black pants and simple black ballerina pumps. She also had on a pair of black dress gloves for her comfort and others safety. She thought she looked quite presentable and nice, as well as smart. That morning she had allowed Kitty to dress her and for once she wasn't regretting the decision.

"Having coffee," Logan retorted succinctly. Logan had likewise dressed for the occasion. He was wearing a light gray button down shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows with a pair of dark jeans. He had point blank refused to wear a blazer or a tie and had resisted Kitty's pleading looks. He did promise that he wouldn't wear his leather jacket until after the ceremony to appease her. Kitty was also one of the few people in the Mansion who could get Logan to bend slightly to her will.

"Forgive me is I'm wrong, but I never pegged you as the 'having coffee' type of guy," Rogue said looking up at her favourite instructor and father figure trying to gauge his reaction.

"Just finish your coffee Stripes," Logan said good-naturedly as he lifted his plain black coffee to his lips and signalled Rogue to do likewise. Rogue smiled into her coffee, she knew Logan well enough that if he didn't want to give out information than it was pointless trying to guess. She might as well enjoy the one-on-one time with someone who she had always looked up to as a parent rather than just an instructor and the comfortable silence that came from a close, caring relationship.

After they finished their coffee both the gruff man and the young woman went for a walk down the street. It was still a fairly warm day, even though it was starting to get into the early evening. Both parties were enjoying the serenity of the day when one of them finally broke the silence.

"You know I'm… I'm proud of you, right Stripes?" Logan said uncomfortably as they turned the corner.

"Yeah, of course Logan," Rogue replied as she moved some strands of her white hair behind her ear. It was a nervous habit she had when she was embarrassed, and Logan was one of the few who recognised the movement for what it was worth.

He would never admit it to anyone but he was more proud of her than anyone else he had ever met. The girl had had one of the toughest slots in life given to her. She was desperate for contact but couldn't touch. She was desperate for love but couldn't trust. She had been betrayed more than anyone should have to be, and all in a few short years. Yet here she stood a member of a team, a family, with a strong will and character. She had developed into a seasoned fighter with a cunning mind, as well as into a beautiful young woman. Logan couldn't help but smile at the thought that he had had a hand in helping her become this person.

"Look Stripes, I'm not good at all this emotional stuff, not like the Professor or Hank is anyway, but you do know that I always thought you and me had a special relationship, right?" Logan continued, still sounding uncomfortable as he led Rogue down another street.

"I mean kid, you're really like the daughter I never had and didn't realise that I actually wanted. I want you to remember that. And I'm sorry we didn't get to do anything special for your birthday. I mean eighteen is a big deal you guys right?"

"That wasn't your fault Logan, these things happen." Rogue protested as Logan led her down yet another street.

"Still, I should have done something for you. I'm always gonna be here for you kid and I want to make this day special for you, after everything that's happened to you, you really deserve it," Logan said as he held open a door for Rogue all of a sudden and gestured for her to walk in before Rogue even realised that they were outside a building or, indeed, what building it actually was.

Rogue was completely caught off guard when she saw where Logan had led her. All around her were beautiful motorcycles on display in the showroom, plus helmets of every style shape and colour as well as everything else you could possible need for your own bike. This of course made Rogue entirely speechless as she looked around the showroom.

"Ah, Mr Logan, I was worried that you wouldn't show up before we closed!" Said a man with long brown hair, a blue polo-shirt and khaki pants. Rogue figured that he obviously worked here.

"Ah," The man said when he caught Rogue's wide mouth look, "This must be the young lady."

"Yeah, this is Rogue. Rogue this is Andrew, he owns the place," Logan said as he held out his hand to shake Andrew's.

"If you want to follow me I'll take you round to her then," Andrew said to a still flabbergasted Rogue, but neither man seemed to really notice as she nodded her head and dumbly followed them. Andrew continued to talk to both her and Logan as he walked them out the door and onto the lot, but Rogue didn't take in a single word as she looked from bike to bike and then back to Logan before she spotted it.

It was beautiful. It was a sleek black and green racing bike. Rogue couldn't help but think that the curves on it were this side of indecent. She had never seen anything in her life that she wanted so much before.

"I think she likes it Logan," Andrew's voice came from somewhere breaking Rogue out of her bike-lust induced haze.

"Good thing I bought it then," Logan said with a smirk.

"What?" Rogue exclaimed quietly, looking between the two men. At this point Andrew patted Logan on the shoulder before heading back inside the building.

"Happy Birthday Rogue and Congratulations on your Graduation," Logan said with a slight smile on his face. Rogue was still staring dumbfounded at him though.

"I wanted to do something special for you, as I do see you as my daughter and I wanted to make sure that, after everything you've been through you'd have one good memory at least."

That was all Rogue needed to hear before she launched herself at Logan and hugged him with all her might while tears streamed down her face. She couldn't help but notice, through the tears leaking from her own eyes, that Logan was tearing up to as he hugged her back. She cried unashamedly as she inhaled a scent that was comforting and undeniable Logan.

"You tell anyone I got all sappy and I'll put you early morning Danger Room sessions for the next month," Logan said joyfully.

"You tell anyone I cried and I'll make sure the entire student population know where your booze stash is hidden," Rogue replied.

"Love you Stripes."

"Love you too Logan."

After the declaration of family love was made both loners moved apart uncomfortably before heading back into the showroom to get all the equipment that Rogue would need to ride safely as well as finishing up the paperwork. While Logan signed the last of the forms Rogue picked out a classic black leather biker jacket, boots and trousers, while her helmet was emerald green and white

When it was all done and Rogue had gotten changed into her biker clothes it was still another half an hour later before they set off back to the Mansion. Logan thought Rogue was far too excited to ride back. It actually wasn't until Rogue realised that she had started to talk like Kitty did she agree to sit and try to calm down.

When they had eventually gotten back to Mansion, without racing or taking a detour to test out Rogues new bike, and parked both the bikes in garage Rogue was entirely taken aback by the complete silence. She thought that at least a few people would still be around to celebrate her graduation with her and admire her new ride. She didn't think that they all would have left already. So, feeling slightly put out, Rogue and Logan made their way into the darkened main dinning room to see if there was anything left from dinner.

"SURPRISE!" Came a tremulous roar as all the lights suddenly came back to life across the large dinning room that was usually used for formal functions. Everyone was there. Absolutely everyone including Warren Worthington and Amanda, Kurt's girlfriend. Everyone was holding sparklers and wearing colourful hats while they all stood under several banners that either said "Congratulations" or "Happy Birthday" or something similar.

Once again Rogue was speechless; she didn't think so many people would go to so much trouble for her. After a few seconds Kitty came forward carrying a large purple cake with several sparklers and candles for her to blow out. After assuring Rogue that she didn't make the cake Kitty held it up for her to blow out all eighteen candles. This got another huge cheer and while Logan cut the cake everyone else took the opportunity to get the party started in their own unique way.

After a few hours of singing, dancing, general merry-making and many viewings of Rogue's new bike the Professor eventually called the room to silence. This was so Rogue could open the rest of her presents that were collected on the table of the dinning room, next to what was left of the food.

Rogue was amazed by everything that she had been given. She had thought that several of the inhabitants of the Mansion didn't care about that much, namely Jean Grey, but she was surprised at the depth and thoughtfulness of all her gifts.

Jean had given her a silk scarf and a book called "Surviving NYU", while Scott had bought her a very dainty silver and white gold bracelet. Kurt and Amanda had combined their money to buy her a beautiful silver Celtic cross necklace with a real emerald set into the middle. Kitty had given her a new pair of leather gloves, which was entirely lucky as they were sturdy enough to be worn with the bike and a very beautiful silver brooch. The other female inhabitants had given her several items of clothes that all seemed to be from her favourite clothes store. The boys seemed to play it safe by getting her various vouchers to book and music stores, except for Jamie. He had bought her a brand new black satin jewellery box which was decorated with a very stylised green velvet floral design. He got a peck on the cheek for that, much to the chagrin of all the other male populace of the mansion.

After all the hyperactive teenagers had presented their gifts it was time for the adults. Warren had given her a pair of long, black silk, expensive looking evening gloves. Ever since they had meet in New York both Rogue and Warren had kept in contact with each other and it was actually thanks to a sponsorship from his company that Rogue could go to NYU. A lot of the other students had implied that Warren had only done it because he had a crush on her, but Rogue just laughed that off, she had a hard time thinking that anyone would have a crush on her let alone a multimillionaire. Hank had given her the complete works of William Shakespeare while Ororo had given her a book called "The Backpackers World Guide" a brand new backpack and a wink.

Eventually she came to the last one. It was a plain white envelope and she wouldn't have even noticed it if Kurt hadn't pointed it out.

When Rogue opened the envelope she was speechless for the third time that day.

"What is it?" Kurt asked looking over her shoulders.

"Its open tickets and booking confirmations for planes, trains and hostels. It's a round the world trip." Rogue said looking up with tears in her eyes.

Rogue was going to study English and Journalism at NYU but had deferred her entry for a year. She had wanted to have an adventure and see the world, or at least part of it. She had been planning on getting a job to save up enough money while still working with the X-men. She hoped that she could saved up enough so she could at least see Europe, and that she could maybe see the rest of the world at various points in time. That had always been her plan since she was thirteen. But now, now the Professor had given her everything to make her dream come true before she started university.

Everyone in the room was completely shocked by the Professors act of generosity, Jean especially. When she graduated and turned eighteen she hadn't gotten anything close to a round the world trip and she felt a little jealous. After all, she was the Professors favourite student. Jean was actually quietly seething next to Rogue on the couch so that she didn't hear Rogue ask why.

"This, my dear Rogue is because everyone deserves at least one of their dreams to come true. You have had to endure so much in your short life, from complete betrayal to complete isolation and yet you've always put yourself and your feelings aside to help everyone else. This gift is the least I could do in gratitude for everything that you have done and in compensation for everything you have had to endure." Xavier finished with a smile.

"It's… it's too much though," Rogue managed to choke out.

"No, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't really. But it's all we can do at the moment," Xavier answered while the only thing Rogue could do was nod her head while tears streamed down her face.

"Thank you, all of you. I'm just speechless really. This is honestly the best day of my life," Rogue said through her tears and with a very watery smile. This tiny speech gave way to cheers from the entire room before the party started up again.

Rogue sat on the couch and just watched all the people around her. She saw Scott and Jean cuddled up on the chair across from her, while Kurt and his girlfriend Amanda were finishing off the last of the buffet. Kitty was on the dance floor with Amara, Jubilee, Tabitha, Rayne and little Jamie, who had multiplied himself so he could dance with all the girls, while all the other boys were trying to get away with drinking the spiked punch. Hank and Xavier were together talking over the spiked punch, apparently neither realised the boys had had a hand in making the festivities jollier. Meanwhile Ororo had succeeded in pulling Logan from against the wall to join the crowd of tipsy boys, but he didn't reprimand any of them he merely joined Warren to talk about classic cars while Ororo went to dance.

The smile on Rogue's face was evident when she surveyed all the people around her and realised that this, this was her family.

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><p>Hope you all enjoyed that.<p>

Just a not on the dialouge.

I am British, though i have to teach American english, i will try and keep this in American English, but forgive my slips. And since i dont know anyone from Louisianna or Mississippi, i dont think i can write a dialouge in their accents, but seeing as when they speak they are saying the correct words, it just comes out in the accents i ask you all to use your imaginations as i will.

please rate and review

TFG


	2. Chapter Two

hi,

here is chapter 2, which has a little more angst and background

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

The week after her graduation was completely full for Rogue as she got everything organised for her once in a lifetime world trip. Luckily for her the Professor and Ororo had already gotten a lot organised for her. This included all her Visa's, her new passport and all other travelling documents. They were also working on getting all the places for Rogue to stay organised so all she really had to do was get all the vaccinations that she would need from Dr McCoy.

That didn't stop her going into the city everyday on her brand new bike to pick up other non-essential essential items though. She knew she would have to leave her bike at the Mansion for a year while she was travelling the world and Rogue was determined to get as much use out of it as humanly possible before she left. And she also hoped that it would still be there for her to enjoy when she gets back. She knew that some of the newer X-boys and even the older X-men such as Scott were eyeing up her bike with nothing short of carnal lust and she knew from experience that some of them might be tempted to take it for a ride while she was gone. Hopefully their fear of her, and Logan, would keep her beautiful new motorcycle in one piece until she got back to the Mansion next summer.

While Rogue had spent the week getting everything ready for her twelve months of solo leisure travelling she had to endure the jealousy and spite of some of the other students. Namely Jean Grey. Everyone knew that the red-headed telekinetic had a bit of a jealous streak but no one thought it would go as far as it had been going.

It seemed that Jean thought that she was entitled to special treatment by the Professor as everyone knew she was his favourite student and protégé. This jealousy for Rogue's expensive gift meant that Jean was starting to get openly hostile towards Rogue. It got to the point where the instructors had to take Jean aside to "have a word" with her about her actions and her attitude towards her teammate. This distinctive jealous streak of Jean's had been noted by the instructors on several occasions though no one had done anything about it so far. It was also known that Rogue and Jean were not on very friendly terms before Rogues birthday. Somehow Jean had found out about Rogue's crush on Scott and had taken the news rather badly. It didn't help that Scott still stood up for Rogue to Jean on occasion and was still quite friendly with her. And Rogue didn't like Jean because of seemingly perfect life but so far both girls had at least found some neutral ground so they could work together. But not at the moment.

After Jeans 'talking to', both girls had at least managed to be civil to one another inside training, even going as far as to work together in combat simulations and training exercises. Outside training however they weren't actually talking to one another at all. Everyone else was quite surprised at Jeans cold demeanour towards Rogue except for Rogue herself. Ever since she opened the Professor's gift she had expected Jeans angry response. And if she was to be honest with herself, she was slightly enjoying it. This meant that for once the young Goth woman, who had grown up in the care of a blind foster mother, with almost nothing to call her own and having to take care of her carer, had something that the perfect Jean Grey had wanted. And with a sigh Rogue realised that it might never happen again, so she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Logan's response to the idea that the girl who he treated as a daughter was going to be travelling the world by herself was entirely predictable as well, at least to Rogue and some of the older X-men. He became a complete over protective father. He spent hours making sure everything was in order, even if he had already checked it over three times previously that day. He had also doubled Rogue's solo training sessions to make sure that she could defend herself if need be. Very few of the X-men felt like they should point out that Rogue had already saved the world, fought countless villains, and could beat all of her fellow team mates in a non-power fight due to being the only X-man who couldn't entirely rely on her powers in a fight. They all knew that she could take care of herself, but again no one felt like pointing it out to an overprotective Wolverine who was overstressed and slightly high strung. They all wanted to keep their genitals attached to their bodies after all.

Kitty's reaction was somewhat more amusing than anyone else's. At first she was rather upset that she would be losing her best friend a year before she had anticipated and got herself quite low because of it. Then she realised that this also meant that she would have the room that she and Rogue shared to herself an entire year earlier than she thought, which made her quite happy. And after that she felt really bad for being quite self centred so went back to being upset, and finally she decided that she should really be happy that her best friend was getting something that she always wanted. This meant that she was excited enough for the entire Mansion combined. This, in reality, scared quite a few of the younger X-men as they didn't realise that that much excitement could fit into such a small package. Especially the newer X-man, Piotr Rasputin, he was used to a quiet life. Before he came to X-men and before he worked for Magneto he had worked on a small farm in Russia with only his immediate family for company and the exuberance from the tiny brunette girl was quite startling for him. Though, luckily for him, after joining with the X-men he decided to escape back to Russia to visit his family, so only had to suffer a few hours of the "Mad Pixie", that was an over-excited Kitty.

Rogue and Kitty had grown very close to each other over the three years that they lived in the same room. It was a necessity for peaceful living to be civil and cordial, but no one had realised that they would find enough common ground to actually form a real friendship. Even the Professor was surprised with this turn of events. They had both also had positive influences on each other. Rogue was starting to lose her prickly Goth persona and was actually starting to open up to more people, gradually. While Kitty had explored more music, film and literature through Rogues recommendation. This resulted in many trips for the two girls to places like the mall and the independent cinema, as well as a few clubs. It also had an effect on each girl's appearance. Kitty had begun to acquire a more grown up look while Rogue had slowly started to shed her heavy Goth make-up and clothes and begun to wear more period clothing. Though she still wore dark make-up and colours.

Kitty realised that she was really going to miss her roommate once she left for her world trip and then left to go to university. So, Kitty threw herself into helping Rouge pack and nobody wanted to get in her way. Not even Rogue, as packing and organising was the one thing Kitty could do wish a passionate determination, except perhaps shopping. Everything was categorised and cross referenced for when and where she was going to be in the world, so her backpack would be have everything she would need without being too heavy, her only condition was that everywhere that everywhere that Rogue stopped she would receive a postcard. This meant that she could follow her on her trip even though Rogue promised to e-mail her. But Kitty wouldn't be derailed; she wanted a visual trail of Rogue's trip around the world to be on her wall so it felt like she still had part of her with her in their room.

While Kitty packed for her Rogue began to plan her trip. She had had her original trip planned from the time she was twelve and she thought that would be it, but now she had others people opinion and recommendations to go on. She had promised Kurt that she would be in Southern Germany for Christmas so she could spend the holiday with his family again. This, of course, made her change some of her original plans. She hope that she would only spend four months total in Europe, but now she had to spend almost five just to make sure she was still in Germany for that time of year. But, she just couldn't say no to Kurt when he looked up at her with his big yellow pleading eyes. It had been quite an argument though, and all in German. Kurt had begun to teach her German since he found out that she was his sister. This meant that Rogue could get around Germany without much help, although she was nowhere close to fluent. Kurt hoped that each year when they visited Germany that she would get more fluent so eventually she could even consider living in Germany with him, at least for little while.

"I'm really getting soft," Rogue said to herself as she had to adjust her trip again. It seemed that since she agreed to the prolonged detour across Europe so that she could visit Kurt's parent it had opened up the trip to more detours. Piotr had asked her, through Hank as they corresponded by email, to visit his village in Russia and had asked his younger sister to show her around St Petersburg, where she went to school. It seemed the young girl was looking forward to finally meeting a member of the X-men who had saved her and her family from the evil mutant who had kept them hostage for nine months the year previous. So, once again she couldn't say no. After that Ororo had approached Rogue about the time she was going to spend in Africa. It seemed that Ororo still had some relatives there and she had asked a few of them to make sure Rogues stay in their country would be worthwhile. This meant that another extra month had to be spent in Africa. Amara had then also offered up her family and her home for when Rogue got to Brazil and Scott had offered Alex as her guide through Hawaii. Alex himself had offered his foster parents home for her to stay when she did get to Hawaii as well as himself as her personal surfing instructor. This might have caused another argument between Jean and Scott which exasperated Scott as he could see something was going on in the redheads mind, but she was still unwilling to talk about what was really upsetting her.

When Rogue finally thought she had finished the trip plan Hank and the Professor had given her a list of old University friends who were located across the world and who had volunteered to show her around their parts of the world as well as host her in their homes. And of course she couldn't say no, as everyone was going to so much trouble for her and she felt that she would be insulting the Professors and Hank's friends if she didn't accept their offer to stay. So, once again everything had to be planned again. In fact, it was only two days before she was due to leave that Rogue finally had a working itinerary to give to Professor X and Logan.

The day before Rogue was due to leave she was due to have one final lesson with the Professor. Since Rogue lost control the year at the start of her junior year she had been working with Professor X on both control of her powers and control of the psyches. The lessons on control were going very slowly and although she had been working on it with him for just over a year she could only manage about two minutes of skin to skin contact. And that was only if she was completely calm and focused. Professor X had told her not to be disappointed though, as even a little control was still a great achievement. He told her that all she really needed was more practice, like every other mutant in the school.

However, her other lessons were proving to be more fruitful. Thanks to Professor Xavier's guidance she had learned to eliminate the psyches from her own mind so that she no longer had to listen to their voices in her head or see their nightmares when she slept. It took a total of eight months for Rogue to learn how to do it, but the night that she finally achieved it she had her first good nights sleep in three years. Now, of course, she could do it automatically, so she no longer had to put any conscious effort into eradicating the psyches so she could entirely focus on her control. Professor Xavier had assured her that once she did learn control she would actually be able to just absorb what she wanted, instead of the entire psyche of the person. Though he still insisted they had a long way to go, since her absorption power was set on a permanent defensive position.

"It's just a matter of switching your power setting from a defensive to an offensive," Professor X had said to her when she finally managed to touch someone without the instant pull.

"When your power first manifested it was quite a traumatic experience for you, so it seemed to make your powers hypersensitive and always on. What we need to do is work out a way for us to reduce its sensitivity to the world," Professor X continued.

"So, if I had experienced my power manifesting in some other way, do you think it would be easier to control?" Rogue asked.

"Possibly," Professor X answered after a moment of contemplation.

That conversation had taken place a few months ago, and although Rogue had started to gain some control, she still had a long way to go. Sometimes Rogue wished that she could go back in time and change how they had manifested. But wishing didn't accomplish anything, so now she had to work hard for her control.

After her last lesson with the Professor had finished Rogue felt pretty happy. She was able to touch someone, for a very limited time, she felt like she belonged somewhere and she was going to be leaving for her adventure in less than eighteen hours.

As she entered her room she found Kitty finally closing her backpack, but noticed the tears on her face and a very sad looking Kurt in the corner of their room.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Rogue said as she closed the door. Both Kitty and Kurt looked up to find Rogue looking at them. That was all it took for Kitty to suddenly burst out into hysterical tears and throw herself at her Goth friend.

"Kitty, what's wrong?" Rogue said, fairly startled by the overt show of affection.

"I'm totally going to miss you!" The young brunette eventually managed to wail out.

"I'm only gonna be gone for a year!" Rogue said as she was frantically looking at her younger brother for help.

"No, your not! After this you're going to NYU! And we won't be together anymore and it'll, like, never be the same again!" Kitty continued to cry out.

"Kitty, it will be fine! I promise I'm not gonna leave you guys completely. Look at Scott and Jean, they've gone to college and they're still here."

"But it wont be the same," Kurt eventually spoke up.

"I know, but does that mean it's gonna be bad?" Rogue said calmly. This caused Kitty to look up expectantly.

"I mean, when I get back you guys are gonna be going off to university too, and who says we won't still all end up in the same place?" Rogue said. She didn't actually believe it; she just wanted to get Kitty off her before she started to absorb her again.

"I guess your right," Kitty said, finally letting go of Rogue, "Sorry, guess I'm just a bit emotional. I finished packing for you."

"Thanks Kit, you know I could have done it myself though," Rogue answered.

"Yeah but you would of done it all at the last minute and forgotten like half of what you actually needed, like last Christmas. Kurt told me you totally didn't pack enough underwear for the trip to Germany and you weren't even there a week!" Kitty said with half laugh. This caused all three to burst out laughing.

"I can't believe your going," Kurt eventually said.

"Neither can I, but I'll be back, probably a lot sooner than y'all would like," Rogue answered as she picked up her backpack.

"No, you won't," Kurt said forlornly, "I will miss you, _meine schwester_."

"And I'll miss you too, _meinen bruder_," Rouge said with a smile.

Kurt took the backpack off of Rogue and carried it down the stairs for her. He didn't want her to see him start crying. He knew that he was going to see her again in four months, a lot sooner than anyone else, but it didn't change the fact that his only sister was going to be travelling alone for about a year. A sister who he had only found three years ago and he felt like they needed far more time together. Their relationship was different, but Kurt was hoping that with time they would have a very strong relationship. He hoped to share a lot with Rogue, he had even persuaded her to accompany him to church once a month. Kurt just hoped that after this year apart they could work on being a family together. He hoped that one day that Rogue would take him up on his offer and actually join his family, so they could share the same last name.

After Rogue had finally managed to calm Kitty down and promised her that when she was in Italy she would stop in Milan for Fashion Week and have a picture taken there she decided to head downstairs to the library. Even though she was going to be travelling the world, she would still need something to read on the plane from New York to Dublin. Her first stop was going to be Ireland where she was going to stay with one of Hank McCoy's old university friends, who was teaching English literature there. Hank assured her that they would get along really well.

As Rogue entered the library she noticed that one other person was hiding there. Someone who she had been avoiding as much as she could during the last week. Jean Grey. It looked like she was working on one of her lesson plans for the newer students, and she didn't seem to notice that Rogue had entered.

"Well that's fine," Rogue thought, "If she hasn't noticed me I'm not gonna draw attention to it."

Unfortunately, that's the problem with living with telepaths. As soon as you think something loudly in your head they tend to hear it. So, as Rogue was passing the table Jean looked up and she received a very intensely displeased look.

Jean had decided that enough was enough. She knew that Rogue would be leaving on her trip tomorrow and so far that was all the Mansion could talk about. It seemed that somehow everyone was involved with some part of the trip, whether it was requesting pictures of certain places or organising a place for her to stay. Jean just couldn't get away from the talk. She thought that the library would be a sanctuary from all the inane chatter. Everyone was finished school for the summer so very few students would actually venture into the library if they didn't have the threat of immanent homework. She had of course forgotten that Rogue was an avid reader and often took advantage of the quiet, well stocked, personal library in the Mansion. Jean could remember seeing both her and Hank discussing the same books every once in a while, like a miniature book club. It irritated her that Rogue could have such an easy relationship with the most of the instructors. She didn't really need to try and get their approval; she didn't even seek it but would get it anyway. And now everyone was bending over backwards for this free trip she was being sent on. Something that she never got to do when she graduated, as they all had to go and stop Rogue from awakening Apocalypse.

That was something that always irritated Jean about Rogue. She was dangerous if she lost control again or decided to work against the X-men she could almost be unstoppable. Rogue could easily steal everyone's powers again and become just as powerful as Apocalypse. She knew deep down that that wouldn't happen, and she also knew that deep down that wasn't the problem she was having with Rogue. But Jean didn't want to admit, even to herself, that her problem with Rogue was jealousy.

Rogue seemed to be able to do everything her own way and yet was rewarded because of it.

"Hey Rogue!" Amara called out as she walked into the room with Tabitha, who had moved back into the Mansion after Apocalypse. This caused both the young women already in the room to look up.

"Hey Rogue, how you feeling bout tomorrow?" Amara asked sweetly as both younger girls came up to stand beside the Goth woman, neither noticing Jean at the table. Something that Jean couldn't fail to notice.

"I'm feeling alright, bit nervous though," Rogue answered, sneaking a sideways glance at Jean and meeting her angry gaze.

"Oh hi Jean didn't see you there," Tabitha said as she followed Rogue's line of sight. Amara just gave a small, sweet wave of acknowledgement.

"Hi girls, don't worry about it, I'm sure you were just too interested in what Rogue had to say to notice me," Jean said with mock cheerfulness that caused anger to flare in Rogue's eyes.

"Well of course! I can't believe you get to go to Paris to party with all those hot French guys! You think your gonna have a holiday fling with one of them? That'll make us all so jealous!" Tabitha ranted excitedly.

"I think you can only really have a fling with someone if you're able to touch them," Jean said coldly while she packed away her books and lesson plans.

"What the hell is your problem?" Rogue yelled, startling both of the younger girls.

"My problem, I have no problem. Except maybe some people getting things they don't deserve," Jean said as she slung her bag over shoulder and walked out of the library, leaving Tabitha and Amara in a state of shock. Rogue on the other hand was enraged and was sick and tired of taking it.

"What the hell was that supposed mean?" Rogue yelled as she caught up with Jean in the entrance hall.

"You heard me," Jean said coldly as she turned around to face the younger woman.

"Yeah, I did. So you think I don't deserve this trip then?"

"No, not really."

"And I suppose you do, do you?"

"Well, yes I do. And so does Scott. We didn't get a chance to do anything last year cause we were chasing you halfway around the world trying to stop you from releasing Apocalypse," Jean stated very matter-of-factly.

"Of course that's what you think, little Miss Perfect Jean Grey is entitled to everything, isn't she?" Rogue said lacing each word with as much venom as possible.

"More than you are!" Jean spat back.

"Why don't you go ask your mommy and daddy to go and sort it out for you then," Rogue hissed out in an angry whisper.

"Why don't you! Oh right, you can't, can you!" Jean yelled back. As soon as Jean said it she knew she had crossed a line, but she couldn't back down, not even after seeing the look of pain that spread across Rogue's face. Or the intake of breath from the other mutants who had gathered while the two fiery women argued in the entrance hall.

"You do whatever you want and you get away with it all the time, while the rest of us have to play by the rules. You go off when you want and do whatever you want while the rest of stay here and have to worry about the time when you become like Mystique and betray us all!" Jean ranted spitefully, getting every mean thought out of her head and literally stabbing her team mate with ever barb she could think of.

"I don't need to take this," Rogue said quietly, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. With that she turned on her heel and stalked off towards the garage. After a few minutes the gathered mutants heard the squeal of a motorcycle as it sped out of the Mansion's grounds.

This left Jean standing in the middle of the entrance hall with most of the Mansions inhabitants staring at the angry and upset redhead. She couldn't look any of the others in the face and couldn't stand to feel their shock and displeasure.

Without thinking Jean had left everyone bewildered in the entrance hall, ran up the stairs and was lying on her bed in a complete state of shock and disorientation. She had her face in her pillow, trying to block out the sounds of confusion downstairs, but she heard it all through her silent angry tears.

"Jean?" Scott's soft and soothing voice came from behind the closed door, but Jean just ignored him. She didn't want to face him either. Yet that didn't deter Scott who simply knocked and called out her name again, before realising that the door wasn't locked.

Scott opened the door softly to see Jean lying face down on her queen sized bed. Most students had to share rooms and only had a single bed, but both Jean and himself had single rooms with queen sized beds. A fact that wasn't overlooked by many of the other teenage residents of the Mansion.

"Jean?" Scott called out softly again.

"I don't want to talk about it," Jean's muffled voice came from the pillows.

"Jean," Scott said again as he sat down on the bed beside his long term girlfriend. He began to rub soft circles across her back, knowing that eventually she will start talking.

"I can't believe I said that to her," Jean said softly after about five minutes. Scott simply kept quiet and continued the slow circles across Jean's back.

"I don't even know why I said that to her. I mean she's leaving tomorrow, I should of just kept my mouth shut and then this wouldn't of happened," Jean said after another five minutes, but now she had raised her head from off the pillow. Scott quietly continued his ministrations.

"I just, I don't know, I just snapped. I mean everyone kept on talking about that stupid trip! She shouldn't even be going on that trip! What has she done to deserve such special treatment anyway?" Jean had now fully sat up so Scott couldn't continue to rub her back. Yet he still sat there quietly. He knew that when Jean was trying to work through her emotions, especially extremes of emotion, she had to speak them out loud to figure them out. He first thought she was just angry for some unknown reason, but now he was starting to figure out why his girlfriend had been so openly hostile towards their friend and team mate. He just had to wait for her to work it out.

"She always does he own thing you know. And she always seems to get rewarded for it. I mean, she doesn't have to be what everyone else wants her to be. No! She gets to come in and do whatever she wants and she still gets special treatment."

By this time Jean was up on her feet and pacing the room as she ranted. Letting all of her pent up emotions about the young Goth woman out. And Scott still sat there, silent, just letting her rant to him.

"Did you know that Wolverine gives her extra training sessions? Five days a week! I mean, we all know that she's his favourite but to show that much blatant favouritism! And can you believe that bike he got her! That was in no way fair to anyone. What made her so special as to be getting all this extra treatment, especially from Wolverine?"

"Well," Scott said cautiously, "Wolverine gives her the extra training so she can stand her own in a fight, so she doesn't need to rely on her powers. I mean, her head must get pretty crowded with all those psyches floating around."

"Are you defending her?" Jean yelled, completely outraged.

"No, I was only saying…"

"I should of known! Its not enough that she comes here and has every instructor giving her special treatment. Including the Professor. He works with her almost everyday! But now your on her side too! What else does she need? She already gets to do everything that she wants and doesn't have to answer to anyone. Or have to live up to anyone's expectations. Oh God! I really wish I was free like that. I mean just think how perfect her life is! I really wish I had a life like that!"

This caused Jean to stop mid rant and Scott to look up at her expectantly.

"Did I just say that?" Jean asked in a shocked whisper.

"You did," Scott answered simply.

"Why, why would I say that?" Jean asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend.

"You know, you and Rogue would actually get on really well if you both finally took the time to sort through your jealousy against each other," Scott said simply, with a slight smile on his face.

"I'm jealous?" Jean asked and Scott simply replied with a small nod of his head.

"I'm jealous. Why would I be jealous?" Jean asked dumbfounded, as if she couldn't process this knew information.

"Well, you said that Rogue gets to live her own life while you have to live up to expectations that might be something to do with it."

"Oh. I cant believe I didn't realised it. I mean, I should of realised shouldn't I? And after I said all those things, she must hate me."

"I don't think she would hate you, but I do think you need to apologise."

"How can I look at her after everything I said?" Jean asked as her eyes suddenly glazed over with tears.

"Well, its either that or you don't apologise, then you don't see her again for about a year then, when she comes back and she will come back, you two cant be in the same room with each other ever again and miss out on what could possibly be a really good friendship," Scott explained simply as he put his arm around Jean's shoulder and drew her closer to his body.

"Why do you make everything sound so simple?" Jean asked, looking lovingly into her boyfriends eyes.

"Alright, I'll talk to her as soon as she gets back. I promise, I will make everything right again. Maybe even better." Jean said with a sigh and a sad smile.

* * *

><p>Hope you all enjoyed that<p>

TFG


	3. Chapter Three

Hello,

hope you enjoyed the first few chapters. Here is the next

* * *

><p>Chapter 3<p>

After riding at a reasonable speed for a hormonal teenager, it only took forty minutes Rogue for Rogue to reach her destination. Once there Rogue parked her green and black racing bike outside of a store that was called "The Word". It was an independent book store that had quickly become her favourite store in Bayville for various reasons. The first reason was that it stocked many books that weren't available in the mainstream stores and didn't fall for the any of the fad book trends, Twilight being a prime example. They also stocked many books that weren't published by the big publishing houses, so it supported many smaller publishing houses and helped a lot of good, new authors get published. The second reason was that they had very comfy chairs and the staff would just leave you alone to read in the quiet space. And occasionally would bring coffee, if they knew you well enough. The third reason was the staff itself.

Rogue took of her black leather biker jacket and hung it up on the coat rack that was next to the door as she walked into the store, she also placed her helmet on the table near the door. The inside was very comfy looking and gave a warm cosy feel. It was a weird mix between a library, a coffee shop, a bookstore and an eccentric relative's living room. This gave it a unique and interesting feel and a great place to calm down after a fight. Once she entered the store she scouted around to look for any familiar faces that happened to be either shopping or working at the store that day. She was such a frequent visitor that she knew almost everyone who would ever be in that store. Unfortunately, she couldn't see or hear anyone.

"Hey Rogue," Came a very cheery male voice from somewhere behind one of the bookshelves all of a sudden.

"Hey Devon, you know it freaks me out when you do that. It feels just like when the Professor does it and I still don't know how you do it," Rogue said cheerfully as the owner of that voice came out from behind the nearest bookshelf.

"Hey, you've come in here so often that I know it's you by how you open the door, all forceful and determined. Besides, those new boots are heavy and you now sound very distinctive. Feminine, yet powerful, dainty, yet hard. Help me with these will you?" Devon asked as he handed Rogue a pile of used books.

Devon had become a good friend of Rogue's since she had moved to Bayville. He was a pre-law student who was now in his final year at NYU and it was his uncle who owned the book store. They had become closer after Rogue's self-possession at the concert in her junior year and after the Risty debacle. It had taken a while for Rogue to trust Devon but he eventually found his way into her heart. And he also had a very interesting sense of personal style. So much so that when Rogue was out in public with him no one would pay attention to her. Even though she had been outed as a mutant, she still got less attention than Devon did.

"You dyed your hair again, I like it," Rogue said as she helped Devon move stacks of second hand books over to the cash register.

"Thanks, I was thinking that since it was summer I should go for a bright colour. Hence the yellow and orange," Devon replied nonchalantly as he set down his stack of books and removed his left arm before sorting through the pile that had accumulated on the desk.

Devon was born with only one hand. His left arm stopped about half way down his forearm and that was how the two independent souls had bonded two years previously.

Rogue had been at the bookstore about two years ago, escaping a hyperactive Kitty at the time, when four armed robbers came in and tried to take all the money out of the stores safe while holding Devon at gunpoint. This of course caused Rogue to fight against the intruders and to knock them out quietly and quickly using her absorption powers. This had worked splendidly as it meant all four men were rendered unconscious with the absolute minimum of bloodshed and Devon had been unharmed. Unfortunately this also meant that Rogue had exposed herself as a mutant in her one safe haven in Bayville. The one place where she could escape both the hatred of the normal students in school and the craziness of the Mansion.

What happened next had completely taken Rogue by surprise. Not only did Devon thank her profusely and exclaim how cool it was that she was a mutant, but he also exposed his own brand of mutation causing Rogue to show one of her rare and beautiful genuine smiles for someone who had made her truly happy.

Devon wasn't a mutant who possessed the advanced X-gene, but he was a young man with a more common mutation where one of his limb just simple did not form in-utero. Devon had told her that he was so ashamed of being different, that he did everything in his power to stop people noticing his obviously difference, such as dying his hair very noticeable colours, wearing very unusual styles of clothing and having a few piercings. He also wore a prosthetic arm, even though he hated it just so people wouldn't look at him and feel sorry for him for being disabled. But with Rogue he was able to be himself and with Devon, Rogue was able to be herself. He knew all about the mutants at Xavier's school long before it was on the news and he was one of the few people who stuck by his mutant friend afterwards. He had also been completely opposed to Mayor Kelly's anti-mutant agenda. This included outfitting each store with a silent alarm in case a mutant happened to walk in. His uncle agreed with him on that point, and although they did put in a silent alarm after the armed break-in it was not for mutants. Devon and his uncle had even started an anti-anti-mutant petition, stating that what Mayor Kelly was doing was against mutant's human and constitutional rights. So far though, they only had about ten others businesses who had signed the petition.

In fact, Devon and Rogue became such good friends that he was even able to persuade her to go to her senior prom. Her only stipulation was that he accompanies her though, since he had missed his own prom. When he turned up at the Mansion to pick her up for the prom in his black tuxedo with his hair dyed red to match the corsage that he had purchased for her everyone had burst out laughing. Logan was worried about this boy until he realised that they were both going as friends and that because of his prosthesis' it looked like Rogue could hold his bare hand. This made both Rogue and Logan smile. Well, until Logan realised that Devon was smuggling a small bottle of whiskey in his false arm. He was about to say something until Hank and Ororo had both pulled him back and made him realise how happy Rogue was, so he let her go and he was glad. When the pictures came back after the prom the whole mansion was in hysterics because of what the two unique individuals had gotten up to that night, which included hanging several banners that read "Mutants Forever and Proud".

"Here, I was gonna bring it round tonight but since you've decided to visit me instead," Devon said handing Rogue a small package wrapped in what looked like Russian newspaper. Rogue accepted the gift with a small and opened it to find a plain journal that was covered in what looked like black silk.

"It's for you to write about your adventures," Devon said with a smile.

"And I bet you expect to be able to read this when you get back?" Rogue asked with a sly smile.

"Well, I expect someone would want to. I mean I was talking to guy who owned a small publishing house and he said how much he would love to read about the world from a young mutant's point of view," Devon said, quite nonchalantly again as he fingered his long, brightly coloured hair. He was desperate to see the look on Rogue's face though as he knew how much she wanted to be a writer.

"Thanks Devon," Rogue said as she came around the counter to hug her friend, tears once again filling her eyes. She couldn't believe how much she had cried over the last few days.

"You're welcome," Devon said with a smile. After a few moments Devon broke the embrace to go into the back room as Rogue looked through the books that were on the counter. She was hoping something was piquing her interest as she still didn't have anything to read on the flight. When Devon came back through he was carrying a cup of what Rogue could smell was a vanilla and coffee. Her favourite, a vanilla latter was put before her.

"Now, not that I don't love having you here, but what's brought you round today? I would have thought that that library of yours would have enough books to keep you busy on your flight tomorrow?" Devon asked as he handed Rogue her coffee.

"Jean," Rogue replied coldly before bringing the coffee up to her lips.

"What did Little-Miss-I'm-So-Perfect do this time?" Devon asked. It was quite a common occurrence for Rogue to flee the Mansion to get away from the dominate redhead. Devon had a feeling that the two girls would actually get a long quite well, if they could get over their mutual dislike. It sounded like the problem was that both girls had quite a lot in common and unfortunately it was all the bad parts of their personality, so it would automatically cause conflict between the two. Devon also didn't understand why no-one at that Mansion hadn't figured this out and made the two girls sit down and talk it out like sane adults. Surely the fact that they were both on a team of mutants who defended the world would make them want to get a long for the sake of humanity?

"Well, she questioned my loyalty, whether I deserve this trip or anything else, and then she made fun of the fact that I don't have any parents," Rogue said simply while she walked through the bookshelves.

"That's shit," Devon said.

"Yeah, yeah it is. I mean what the hell did I do to her to make her hate me so much?" Rogue said as she thumbed a couple of book spines.

"She doesn't hate you Rogue, I have a feeling that she's just jealous of you," Devon said following Rogue through the bookshelves as he put the small stack back on the shelves.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Why on Earth would she be jealous? I mean she's got the perfect life, and the perfect guy, and she'll probably go off and have the perfect family while I'll be stuck by myself forever. I mean, she gets to hug and kiss and do other stuff, while I have to keep back so much just so I don't kill everyone else. Why on Earth would anyone be jealous of that!" Rogue exclaimed going misty eyed again but for a different reason, looking at Devon like he had just sprouted an extra head. Which to Rogue seemed more logical than the perfect Jean Grey becoming jealous of her.

"Well, in my experience, if someone is unreasonably hostile towards you, and goes to great lengths to point out things that make you feel small, its because they're jealous of something you have," Devon continued as he restocked the shelves, enjoying the incredulous look on Rogue's face.

"I think you've been around these dusty books too long," Rogue said, shaking her head and discreetly wiping her eyes.

"Maybe, anyway, why do you care, you're leaving tomorrow to see the entire world. Don't let Miss Prissy get you down. It sounds like maybe she's not getting so many hugs, kisses and other things from one eye anyway," Devon said as he rubbed his friends shoulder through her purple top.

"Thanks Dev. I think I'm just gonna look around some more," Rogue said with a half smile.

"Ok, I'm gonna get back to work. Let me know if you need anything," Devon said as he picked up the empty coffee mug and walked back over to the counter, leaving Rogue in her own thoughts about her trip and Jean Grey.

After a few hours, and quite a few coffees, Rogue was still between two bookshelves but she had calmed down considerable. She had dragged her favourite comfy blue chair over so she could read the start of a few books to narrow down her decision. She was also contemplating returning to the mansion after she had received the twentieth text from her friends and instructors asking her to come back.

Every year, since the Institute had opened its doors to young mutants in need, before the students all went home for the summer in a mass exodus there would be a formal sit down dinner for all the students and staff of the Mansion. It was a nice way to end the school year and to say goodbye to everyone, before everyone who could went home for two months. It was enjoyed by everyone as it gave everyone a chance to get dressed up and have a fantastic three course meal that the Professor had professionally catered. There would also be fireworks, music and it was the one day that the students were allowed to stay up passed curfew. This meant that everyone would be far too tired in the morning for their flights or pick-ups and curse the instructors for letting them stay up that late. It also meant that every student would see the sadistic look on Logan's face as they left, knowing that they would have a long training session as soon as they got back to make up for the months without early morning Danger Room sessions. It was a joke amongst the students that that was all Logan did when they were gone, think up new ways to torture them. Some of the students were beginning to believe this as there was too much evidence now to disprove them.

This year was actually going to be the first year that Rogue would be leaving for the summer. Her plane would be leaving from JFK at ten o'clock in the morning. This was around the same time that Kitty would be getting her flight back home to Chicago. So both Rogue and Kitty would be taken to the airport by Logan at about seven o'clock to make sure they got there for the two hour check in. Rogue also had a feeling that Kurt would be accompanying them, even though he wasn't going to be leaving for another two weeks. He was going to stay on and help at the institute, a job that usually belonged to Rogue as she was one of the few who never left.

Rogue sighed, knowing that she would have to go back to the Mansion sooner or later to face Jean. And Rogue felt it should be sooner, as she didn't want to put dampener on the night that Ororo, Hank and the Professor had planned. Besides, it was almost six and the store would be closing soon.

As Rogue was contemplating these thoughts she heard the musical jingle of the door of the store and several pairs of feet walk into the store. Rogue checked her watch seeing that the store would be closing very soon and getting a very bad feeling about the sudden appearance of several people. So, Rogue got up, picked up her selection of books, and started to make her way through the bookshelves to see who had entered the store fearing that it might be another armed robbery.

"I'm sorry, we're closing," Devon's voice came out suddenly, sounding very nervous. Rogue knew that Devon would have one finger going towards the silent alarm if he felt even the slightest bit nervous about the appearance of several men before closing time.

"We'll be quick," A voice said that sounded cold and strangely familiar to Rogue as she made her way towards the front of the store to see what was going on. That was when she heard the struggle and the strangled cry that could've only come from Devon.

"Make sure this mutant sympathiser is taken care of," Said the cold, familiar voice again.

Rogue slowly peered around the bookshelf to see that two men had grabbed hold of Devon and were currently tying his hands together behind his back. Devon always put his false arm back on when he heard the store bell jingle. The men were forcing Devon back onto a chair while they were about to gag him. The men obviously knew about the silent alarm in the store as they had moved Devon back quite a considerable distance from the counter, so he couldn't raise the alarm if he tried.

"Spread out men. She's here. Remember, don't touch her skin barehanded and we want her alive. So tranquilise her," The man with the familiar voice said. He was tall, about six feet tall and had a prominent chin and a moustache. He had dark hair and cold eyes. He also looked like he was regarding the entire store with a disdain, as if he was afraid something here would corrupt him.

Rogue could see that there were ten men there, including the one with the familiar voice who was obviously in charge. One of the men was currently guarding Devon, while another six men were spreading out through the store. Each man was wearing black fatigues with a headset on that was attached to a box on their belts. They were all carrying an array of weapons, but most were rifles that had obviously been adapted to fire tranquilisers rather than bullets, with a pistol also attached to their belts. Each man was obviously military trained, but she couldn't see any emblem that identified them to any military organisation that Rogue knew.

The book store wasn't a huge store but it was fairly large, but there were still only two exits. The front entrance was being guarded by one of the men who didn't move out and the back exit, which was through the back room, was currently being guarded by the tenth and final man. But the windows were big and glass, and with one decisive hit they would shatter giving her an escape route. All she had to do was get to them, but she couldn't leave Devon alone with these men. He had stood beside her through a lot and she couldn't live with herself if anything happened to him because of her.

Quietly she slipped through the bookshelves and managed to take out two of the men quickly and quietly by using her absorption powers. Rogue was crawling quietly towards the back of the store to where Devon was being held when she felt a sharp pain through the back of her head as someone grabbed the back of her head by her hair and pulled.

Rogue couldn't stop the strangled cry that ripped from her throat as she was slammed against a bookshelf. Luckily for her the man was over eager and put too much force into it. This caused the bookshelf to fall forward against each of the other bookshelves like dominoes until the last one hit the window and caused the glass to shatter. While the man who had grabbed her jumped back in shock and knocked into the other bookshelf causing it to teeter before toppling on top of him, knocking him unconscious.

It took a lot of strength for Rogue to crawl out from under the now unconscious military man and the bookshelf. Unfortunately, as soon as her head poked out from under the bookshelf she was met with several metallic clicks as several pistols were drawn, readied and pointed in her direction.

"Rogue, right," the Moustached man said. It was a statement, not a question. It was quite obviously that this man knew exactly who and what she was. The man gave a look towards two of his colleagues and the two men grabbed an arm each and yanked her to her feet.

"Now, if you behave this will be an entirely painless process. If not, well you can guess the rest," The Moustached man said again coldly, causing all the other men to laugh.

This was opening that was needed for an escape plan to start. Surprisingly though it wasn't Rogue who started it. In that split second when the military men's defences were down Devon spun out from his guards, leaving his prosthesis in the man's hands. He quickly kicked the man in the groin, causing him to fall to the floor and then dived towards the counter to raise the alarm.

It was the cry from the guard that made every other man's attention move away from the mutant in their captivity towards the counter. That was all she needed, after all she wasn't Wolverine's best student for nothing. Quick as a flash she had swung out her leg to sweep one of her capture's off his feet while throwing out an elbow to crack the other across the face.

With as much force as she could muster she threw herself forward to tackle the man who was in front of her to ground, but she was suddenly pulled upwards by her hair once again by another one of the guards. This was when Devon flew out from behind the counter to tackle the other guard giving Rogue an opportunity to escape the hold. Rogue threw her body back and then forward, causing the man to fall right over her head and land on the other man currently unconscious on the floor.

"Run Rogue!" Devon screamed as he ran forward to try and take out the other guard by the door by throwing a very large and heavy book at his head, and astonishingly it did the trick. Rogue didn't need to be told twice. She flipped the distress signal on her communicator that was hidden in her jeans pocket and ran out through the front door. That was when the smoke grenades were launched into the store obscuring Rogue and Devon's vision with dense billowing white clouds.

Rogue reached out to grab Devon's one arm to drag him out of the store through the back exit before they both chocked to death on the smoke. That was when she heard the shot ring out and felt Devon's body go limp. The smoke was so thick that Rogue couldn't even see Devon as he hit the floor beside the fallen bookshelves. Rogue crouched down low and felt around the ground to try and feel for Devon's body. When she finally got a hold of him she grabbed his unconscious but living body as she would not leave her friend to these thugs. That was when another shot rang out and Rogue felt a sudden sharp pain across her neck.

Her head began to swim and her legs felt like jelly so Rogue couldn't support her own weight anymore. She didn't realise that she had hit the ground but she still knew that she had to get away before the black clad men came for her. Unfortunately her body wouldn't obey her commands to start crawling towards the back exit.

The last thing Rogue saw was several black clothed men with dark goggles and gas masks approach her. She knew that they were saying something but the sound didn't seem to compute in her brain. The men reached down to pull her away from the form of her still friend, who was lying on the ground forgotten. Then her world went black.

"Good work men," The Moustached man said to the three goggled men who had entered the store to retrieve the unconscious mutant.

"Thank you Colonel Trask," One of the goggled men said.

"Put the collar on her and put her in the van, and make sure you restrain her. The collar may suppress her powers but she can still fight and I don't want to lose her," Col Trask said coldly while regarding the damage to the store and to his agents.

"What about him sir?" Asked one of the other goggled men, pointing towards the unconscious young man who was lying beside their mutant target.

"Leave the mutant sympathiser here. Why should we bother about scum like him? Hurry up; we have to go before the others show up. I only want to deal with one piece of mutant scum today," Colonel Bolivar Trask said, knowing that the rest of the X-men would be there soon enough. He bent down to remove the communicator from the jeans pocket, studying the piece of equipment before dropping it on the ground.

Two of the goggled men picked up Rogue and placed her into the back of a normal looking SUV, that wasn't normal at all. Everything had been taken out of the back so it had become a make-shift van complete with reinforced walls made of a bulletproof material. It also had restraints and more tranquilisers so their captive wouldn't give them any trouble.

After they had packed up Rogue into the back of the SUV and had recovered each of their fallen men, and put them into other SUV's, Colonel Trask and three other men dropped several grenades into the area before driving off. The grenades released clouds of thick, yellow smoke which quickly obscured the street. These grenades had been specially designed with the X-men in mind so that Trask's men could escape without being followed. The grenades had a very distinctive scent and would mask and actually eradicate every other smell in the area making it impossible for Wolverine to know who was here or where they were headed. This would give Colonel Trask and his men enough time to get to the small airport on the outskirts of Bayville and board their jet which would take Rogue to their base.

With all the noise that usually accompanied the end of the school year, plus the number of bodies that were running between rooms collecting lost belonging, Logan was finding solace in surveillance duty. As he did every year on the last day that the institute was occupied by hormone driven adolescents. Even though it really wasn't needed for someone to man the surveillance room considering every student was in the Mansion trying to pack. Except for one.

The fight between Jean and Rogue had been quite brutal, as many fights between two dominant women were and it also didn't help with such close quarters nothing was ever kept a secret for long and everyone knew about it within five minutes of it ending. Logan also knew that the two girls were actually far too similar to actually be friends, but he thought they would at least be civil to one another. He looked at Rogue like a daughter, and he had always respected Jean as teammate and sometimes as a team leader. He really didn't expect to see so much hate burning in both young women's eyes.

Everybody in the institute knew that both young women weren't best friends, but thought that they could at least be able to get on enough to be teammates. Logan had voiced several times that they needed to get them to work out their dislike for each other, mainly through Danger Room sessions, while Hank and Ororo voiced that sitting them together to talk would be a better option. However the Professor always said that the two would work their problems out for themselves and any move to intervene would result in anger from both of them, probably prompting the situation to become even worse. So, every one backed off.

Logan knew that Jean was currently in her room with Scott, trying to work out why she had had the fight with Rogue in the first place. Scott and Jean had been together for about two years and had been working as instructors in the institute for about a year. He was quite happy for them as they seemed to be a very good couple, and he knew that Scott would help Jean come to terms with whatever emotions she was feeling. Logan wouldn't admit it, but he was slightly attracted to Jean as he did like feisty redheads. Fortunately he had seen her grow up and mature, so in his mind she was completely off limits. Besides, she might be feisty but she was far too much of a good girl for his tastes. He also didn't like the way she treated his kin, namely Rogue and if the Professor hadn't intervened on occasion would have certainly had more than a "talking to" with her.

Logan also knew that Rogue would have gone to her home away from home. That book shop that she always went to, with that weird haired kid. He could hear that some of the others were trying to get Rogue to come back to the institute, but he knew his girl better. He knew that when she had calmed down she would come back on her own, just like he would. He also knew that she would never miss the final dinner of the year.

It was during this quiet contemplation that the worse sound known to Logan sounded. It wasn't the sound itself that Logan hated, but the implication. This was the distress call and the only person that was out of the Mansions grounds was Rogue.

"We have trouble," Logan said through the communicators to the senior team members.

"What trouble?" Scott's voice said out from the communicator.

"Rouge's distress call, everyone down at the van now!" Logan growled before running from the room. When he got down to the garage he found Kurt, Kitty, Jean and Scott waiting in full battle gear and without words they all climbed into the van and raced off in the direction of the bookstore. Each person in the van hoping that Rogue had just pressed her distress call by accident. Even though everyone knew that that was impossible, you had to flip open the case before pressing the call button. Everyone in the van was tense about the situation, but none more than Jean. She would never forgive herself if she was the cause of something bad happening to Rogue.

When they arrived at the bookstore it was complete chaos. The windows had been smashed and a bookshelf was half hanging out of the empty frame. Logan could see the empty shells of smoke grenades that littered the streets and could smell the gas they released.

"What the hell happened?" Logan growled out, trying to find a scent but finding nothing at all.

"Logan!" Kitty screamed sending Logan running in the direction of her scream. Kitty had run into the store as soon as the van stopped to try and locate Rogue with Kurt while the other three looked around. Logan was thinking the worst, as was everyone else as they came running from around the street as well.

Kitty was kneeling down beside a prone body on the ground. Logan's heart stopped for a second before he picked up the only scent that seemed to be in the store. It wasn't Rogue, it was the boy who had taken her to the prom and he was hurt.

"Kid, kid," Logan said shaking the boy, who was beginning to gain consciousness.

"Logan? Kitty?" Devon eventually coughed out as Kitty helped him to sit up.

"What happened here kid?" Logan asked quickly, tying to keep calm but the whole situation was starting to get him nervous. And Logan didn't like being nervous.

"They took her," Devon said looking up into Logan's eyes.

"Who took her?" Scott asked, coming to kneel down beside Logan.

"I, I don't know. They looked like soldiers, but they were all dressed in black. I think there were about five or six of them. And they knew everything about her too, they knew not to touch her bare skin" Devon continued as tears began to leak from his eyes.

"Logan," Kurt's German voice suddenly called out. Everyone assembled turned to look at the blue mutant, who was holding up Rogue's communicator that was still sending out a distress signal. The communicator that also acted as a tracking device and since Logan couldn't find her scent that was their only hope.

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><p>Please rate and review and let me know what you think.<p>

TFG


	4. Chapter Four

Hi guys, so heres the next chapter.

TFG

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

It was the same three white walls, with the same glass front wall, and the same two small blue circles just in front of the glass. It was the same basic cot bed with the same toilet and sink for company. For what must have been the hundredth day in the row Remy Lebeau opened his unusual deep red on black eyes hoping that the white-washed hell he's been living in for the past eight months had just been one long nightmare. But it wasn't, it was real and it hurt every morning when he opened his eyes to find that piece of hope was shattered and he realised he had another day left in this bleached hell hole.

Remy got up from the small cot and stared around his nine foot by seven foot by nine foot cell. All in blinding white, which he was sure was another way to help drive the prisoners insane, but with Remy's sensitivity to light it was even more painful. Remy could see into the cell across from him and saw that the purple skinned man was lying in the foetal position on the floor and shaking violently. He wouldn't last much longer, and sometimes Remy worried about just how much longer he was going to last in this mad scientist slash military run hell-hole. He had seen so many other mutants go over the last few months. The current mutant in the foetal position was Mutant Subject 21 and he had mostly been going quiet over the last few weeks.

"I should have taken that job with bucket-head." Remy said quietly to himself as he sighed.

He tore his eyes away from the pitiful sight of another mutant finally succumbing to the end of their tether and walked over to the sink. They aren't allowed much water in the cells but Remy always made sure that he would wash his face. He just wished that he had a mirror to see the damage that had been done to him over the last eight months. He knew he lost weight and muscle mass so that now his light blue cotton pants and shirt hung off of his sinewy body. When he was free he was constantly training to keep his body at the peak of physical condition, but now all he can do is walk around his cell a few times a day. They also don't let you have razors so he couldn't shave himself, but as he rubbed his hand over his slight beard he knew it didn't really matter. One of the crazy scientist or nurses, or whatever they were, would shave him about once a month when he was unconscious and being examined. They also kept his hair pretty short, mainly due to the experiments they occasionally did on his brain. Remy looked slowly down at his hands and saw the new lattice work of scars across his hands. He had always had scars on his hands due to the explosive manifestation of his powers, but now they were even more extensive and covered most of his body.

Remy dropped his head down as he leant onto the sink. He was ashamed to admit that every time they took him he was afraid they would do something worse, so far he had been lucky. He had seen some of the others, so he really shouldn't complain about a bad hair cut and some new scars to an already scar ridden body.

"Morning 26," The voice on the other side of the glass said snapping Remy out of his thoughts. It was Kevin, the only friendly guard who worked in the complex; this meant that it was Thursday morning. Due to his previous employment and years of training Remy had memorised the guard's schedule, so he knew who was working and on what day that way he have some sense of what was going on. It was one of the few methods that were helping Remy keep his mind. It also didn't hurt that Kevin liked to sit in front of Remy's cell and talk about current events. Kevin even let Remy read the paper over his shoulders and told him everything that was on the news. And sometimes, Kevin would set a little table in front of Remy's cell, and the two would play blackjack for candy bars. There was even that one time when Kevin had the night shift and he brought in his little TV, every mutant in the place was thankful for that little TV. Kevin's superiors on the other hand had not been that impressed with the guards' attempts to rally the spirits of their captives.

Remy had made many observations during his time locked in the lab complex. He knew that there were only twenty cells and there would only be one "Mutant Subject" per cell. So, that meant that there could only be twenty mutants in the facility at a time, unless there was another room filled with containment cells, but so far none of the guards had let that slip so he seriously doubted it. There were two lines of cells, each facing the other, each exactly the same. There were ten cells per line and they were in complete isolation from each other. Except for one vent under the bolted down beds. These vents joined two cells together so if gas was released into one cell it would spread out into the adjoining cell to affect the next mutant as well and Remy had found that out within the first few weeks he was imprisoned when the sadistic guards had decided to knock everyone out one night for fun. Remy figured it's purpose must be help the spread of gas, so the guards only needed to set off 10 gas canisters instead of twenty. Unless its purpose was to encourage the insanity to spread quicker through the cells. There used to be a girl occupying the cell next to him, and she had been muttering constantly for the last three weeks. Or, at least she did. It was eerily quiet in the cell next to him at the moment as it had been for the last few days. Maybe, she had finally gone. Or, maybe she had been taken away for some other test. Remy had watched them take her slightly trembling body away for another bout of tests, and she had not been returned. Though Remy believed it was the former rather the latter. He knew that some of the Mutant Subjects had died on the table.

Each mutant was numbered rather than named. It was a way to make them seem less than human and they were only referred to by their numbers and to reinforce this they were each made to wear a cuff that held their Mutant Subject Number, their gender, their birthday and their mutant abilities. And as Remy was the twenty-sixth mutant in the lab complex it meant that something had had to have happened to six other mutants before him for there to be space to keep him in the cell. And he had watched a further nine mutants come and go during his months in the complex. At least the guard rotation remained the same so Remy could count on that normalcy and he had started to know them all by name and habit.

The man in front of him, Kevin, was short with dark hair and a slight tummy, like an athlete gone to seed. He was an older man, possibly middle-aged and he had a very kind face and happy eyes that seemed to hold a glimmer of hope, but Remy never knew what the hope was for. Remy had no idea why someone like him would be working in a place like this, but he had never asked and did not want to ask. The only concern Remy had at the moment was that Kevin was carrying what the guards assured Remy was actually food. Kevin put the tray down on a folding chair outside of Remy's cell then came up to the glass.

"You know the drill 26. Face the wall, hands in the blue circles or you get the gas again," Kevin said calmly and Remy complied. It wasn't in his nature to comply with people, especially those who were holding him captive, but he was hungry and refusal meant another day without food. And Remy couldn't go a fourth day without food. A side effect of Remy's mutation was that he had an accelerated metabolic rate and as a result he had to consume a lot of food, unfortunately his nature made him rebellious so it was an internal debate that was constantly being waged in his head, heart and stomach. So far he had gone three days without any food and very little drinking water. The reason for this enforced starvation was that he was being punished for knocking out four guards and a doctor during the last time they took him out for experimentation. They hadn't restrained him properly while they were getting all their equipment together and Remy had taken the opportunity as a chance hoping to escape. He only got as far as the door to the containment centre before he was knocked unconscious, but that was further than anyone had ever gotten before. It was also his ninth failed escape attempt. Though he never tried to escape when Kevin was on duty as the man may be old, but he was fair and always did the best for all the mutants under his "care" at the complex.

As soon as he was facing the wall and his hands were in the blue circles on the wall Remy heard the sealed drawer slide open and then close again with a loud snap. It took all his self control to keep his hands in the circle and wait until he knew that the door had closed. When he heard the final sound of the drawer closing again Remy raced across to the drawer at the front of the cell and grabbed the bowl that held the thin porridge that was like ambrosia to a half starved mutant. He wanted to gulp it down in one go but he knew better. This might be the only food he receives in a while so he was going to take his time on this meagre meal and enjoy it as if it was a three course feast at a top Parisian Restaurant.

"Anthony Hopkins most famous role as a psychotic doctor?" Kevin said as he sat down on the chair that was set in front of Remy's cell. He had taken out a newspaper and was attempting to do the crossword. This was why Kevin was on such friendly terms with Mutant Subject 26; he helped him with the crossword puzzle every week for the last eight months. This was another thing that was keeping Remy sane, being able to stretch his mind with pointless trivia every Thursday to Monday morning. This little interaction also helped remind Remy that he was indeed human and not just a lab rat. It gave him hope that somehow he could get back out into the real world.

"Hannibal Lecture," Remy replied as he sat down on the floor, taking small sips of his meal and sitting down next to the glass so he could see the paper over Kevin's shoulder. The Thursday crossword was always so easy Remy thought as he scratched the skin under his power suppressing collar.

"Birth country of the poet Robert Burns?" Kevin asked picking up his mug of coffee that he had set down next to his chair.

"Scotland." Remy replied quickly.

"Author of the book 'My Sisters…'" Kevin started.

"Get your fucking hands off of me!" A woman suddenly screamed in what could only be described as a Southern shriek, causing both men to stop what they were doing and look towards the man door of the holding cells as they burst open. This was harder for Remy as he was behind the glass and couldn't get a clear view of the door, but he could see that the other mutants began to press up against the glass. At least the ones that were still mobile or conscious of what was going on around them.

What came through the doors of the containment complex was complete and utter chaos. It looked like twenty guards and a number of scientists were trying to restrain what looked a new prisoner. And from what Remy could see it was an absolute hellion! It had so far thrown two guards through the door before tumbling in with another guard trapped between her arms.

Remy had seen many new mutants being brought in and they usually fought. But the collars that the guards fastened to their necks stopped them being able to use their powers so the new prisoners never fought long. According to Kevin the only prisoner who had really fought for any length of time was Remy himself when he was brought in and Remy knew the only reason why he fought was because he had been trained to from a young age and refused to submit to the force of the mad scientist or crazed military fanatics. And this girl apparently had a lot of training too and had the same thought process as he had had, as she was giving all these guards a run for their money. And it was the most exhilarating thing Remy had seen for a long time.

Both Kevin and Remy watched, transfixed and unmoving, as the girl brought down two guards in one swift movement, her bright chestnut hair flying around her like a dark ring of fire. She was like a demon sent from hell itself to exact vengeance upon the mortals that occupied the lab complex. And she was getting closer to Remy's cell. He could see that more guards were running towards the hellion to try from all directions to try and contain her. One finally got a hold on her and threw her against the front of Remy's cell.

He saw the girl look up at him and he was stunned. This girl wasn't a demon, she was an angel. A beautiful and exquisite rose that was covered in hard and sharp thorns. She had the brightest emerald green eyes that Remy had ever seen, for that was the only thing Remy could describe them as, precious jewels. She was about eighteen or nineteen years old and was maybe five foot seven or eight. And she had the most unusual hair he had ever seen. Deep chestnut with two bright platinum white stripes framing her face making her pale skin shine brighter than the moon. Her deep red lips were a deeper colour than rubies and contrasted beautifully against her pale skin. And she was looking him straight in the eye. No one outside of Remy's immediate family had ever looked him straight in the eye before and it was enchanting. He was trapped in a spell with this angels eyes and he couldn't look away. He was hypnotised and so was she. He could not look away from her remarkably beautiful face.

For a few moments both young mutants were lost in each others gaze, through the sheet glass between them. The green eyed angel placed her hand on the glass and Remy mirrored the movement, placing his hand directly onto hers without letting his gaze leave the deep sea of her eyes. If the glass hadn't been in the way he would be touching her intoxicatingly soft looking skin. Then the moment was over.

Remy saw the shock suddenly move across her body as she moved her hand to the back of her neck. She slowly pulled what looked like a small dart out from behind her, looked at it and then her eyes rolled back as she fell to the floor. Remy quickly kneeled down on the floor, as if he was trying to catch her. He saw about twelve guards come running towards the glass and the body of the unconscious girl. The guards then started yelling something but Remy didn't seem to understand, all that mattered was making sure that the angel was alright. Until the gas was turned on.

Remy was hit by a cloud of liquid nitrogen gas which was so cold that it burned his exposed skin. It was one of the sadistic ways that the guards managed to control the occupants of each of the cells. It worked rather effectively considering that each prisoner only had a thin white t-shirt, a pair of thin blue cotton drawstring bottoms and grey slippers. They also had the power negating collars around their neck and an identification cuff on their left forearm. The cuff that consisted of a piece of metal which held their subject number, their gender, their date of birth and their mutant ability. It was held in place by some strange leather material that wouldn't rip or tear at all.

"Face the Wall, Hands in the circles!" One of the guards, who was definitely not Kevin, yelled at Remy and for good measure turned the gas on again to make his point. Remy moved as quickly as he could as his body was shaking from exposure to the cold gas, it also didn't help that the circles were in the direct line of the nitrogen gas streams so he had to stand in the frozen area. Some of the guards liked making them stand with their hands in the circles before turning on the gas. One poor mutant had had his hands frozen to the wall and had to rip off half of his skin in order to get away from the gas, he died three weeks later. Most of the guards did seem to be mutant hating fanatics who were being allowed to torture mutants just for the hell of it.

After that Remy couldn't see what they did to the girl as he had to hold his head between his arms and face the wall, but it was noisy. He could hear several people rush around to try and strap the girl to a gurney. Then he heard the voice of the crazed military man who was in charge of the guards yelling at everyone, while the voice of the lead mad scientist directed people about what to do with the girl.

"Ok 26, you can relax now," Kevin said once everyone had left with the new mutant.

"What was all that about?" Remy asked as he walked towards the glass watching the short man pick up his chair and his newspaper again, though the coffee was a lost cause as it had spilled all over the floor. Every other lucid and mobile mutant was also at the front of their respective cells, having witnessed the commotion. They all seemed excited as it was probably the most interesting thing they had all seen in a very long time, though 31 was still lying on the floor of his cell. And it looked like he's finally stopped moving.

"Don't know, but it looks like your getting a new neighbour and a pretty one at that, though she might be a bit of a handful. Author of the book 'My Sister's Keeper'?" Kevin said simply.

"Jodi Piccoult." Remy answered as he picked up his bowl of porridge to continue his meagre meal.

The first thing Rogue became aware of was the splitting pain in her head. Yet, when she tried to move her hand to massage her temples that was when she became aware of the second discovery. She was completely restrained and she couldn't move at all. Even her head was held in place by some sort of restraint.

Rogue tried to remember what had happened, but everything was slightly blurry. She remembered her fight with Jean, as well as her hurtful words and leaving the Institute. She remembered talking to Devon at his bookstore. She remembered the men in black clothes and the fight. She remembered waking up somewhere bright white that smelled like a hospital. She remembered guards filling in when she jumped off the table and started to fight. She remembered red on black eyes staring out at her from behind the glass. Then blackness again.

Rogue's emerald green eyes immediately sprang open as she began to recall more details about the men who took her and the mutant's behinds the glass. She realised that she was in a place where they put mutants in cages and it smelled like a hospital, this was the thought that terrified her. At first, when she opened her eyes, she thought she had woken up into a nightmare. But nightmares weren't this loud, vivid or painful.

All around her were men and women in lab coats. She couldn't identify any of their faces as they all had surgical masks and goggles on. Each person was either writing something down on a notepad, twiddling dials on various pieces of large medical equipment or talking to each other in hushed whispers. No one seemed to have noticed that she was awake, or if they did they didn't care. Rogue couldn't help but think it was probably the latter rather than the former.

The entire scene was truly terrifying as was being unable to move any part of her body, so natural Rogue was starting to become physically scared. Eventually one of the scientists noticed that her heart trace had suddenly jumped up to over 130 beats per minute. This scientist then turned to an older looking scientist next to him and whispered something causing the older looking scientist to look in her direction.

The older man was wearing the traditional white lab coat but didn't have any of the other "scientific" apparel that the rest of the men and women in the room were wearing. He had greying hair with dark eyebrows and even darker eyes. Eyes that frightened Rogue down to her very core as they were horrible soulless things that were appraising her.

"Well, it seems our new subject is awake," The scary scientist said to the others in the room, as if Rogue couldn't understand him.

"As you will see this specimen's powers have manifested as an unconscious conscious energy drain. As you remember I had touched this specimen's bare skin without incident while we had her under sedation," Scary Scientist continued.

"What the fuck are doing!" Rogue screamed, trying to thrash her way out of the restraints, but it was no use. They were too tight and no one seemed to notice or care about her discomfort.

"Gag her," Scary Scientist said simply and one of lesser scary scientist came out with what looked like a ball gag and tape, and he managed to get it in Rogue's mouth and secured while no one else batted an eyelid.

"Now, as I was saying, while she was unconscious her powers did not activate and did not drain me of my energy, but now that she is conscious her powers will manifest and render any subject who touches her skin unconscious, while taking their thoughts, energy and in the cases of mutants, their powers. What she has taken then will stay in her mind."

Rogue felt like she was in the middle of an out of body experience. Here she was captured and chained to a hospital bed while these scientists talked about her power as if she wasn't here, or she was some sort of lower being that couldn't understand what they were talking about. It was disconcerting how much they knew about her powers and her psyches. It was just plain terrifying being rendered helpless by these maniacs.

"Now, its my hypothesis, that since her first manifestation was so traumatic it's the memory of this that is keeping her powers active during her conscious state, which is demonstrated through her skins inability to absorb during the unconscious state," Scary Scientist said while gesturing to one of his assistants.

"I believe that by removing her memories her powers will cease to be permanently active. Of course, by removing her memories she will be easier to control. As you will see from her profile, she has been trained extensively to fight, add that to her mutant capabilities it would mean that we could have a perfect weapon. Mr Stryker, don't you agree?" Scary Scientist asked one side of the room.

That was when Rogue noticed the gallery.

It was filled with men in suits and men in uniform and she recognised them,

They were part of the group known as "The Friends of Humanity" who crusaded for humankind against the mutant menace as they called it. Rogue knew that their objective was the subjugation of mutants; they were currently trying to get a bill passed that would require the registration of all mutants, which was the brainchild of her former High School Principle who was now currently the Mayor of New York City. Now, lying here at this moment of time, Rogue knew what their true goal was. It was the destruction of mutants. And they had brought Rogue here to aid their cause.

The scary scientist then turned towards another younger scientist and whispered some instructions that Rogue could not hear, but sent the room into a whirlwind of activity. The Scary Scientist then left the room, but Rogue could still see him through the glass. She was so intent on watching him that she did not notice what was going on around her secured head. Until she heard the whizz of the clippers.

The younger scientist had begun shaving her head. That was when Rogue realised what was going to happen to her. They were going to operate on her brain to remove her memories. She remembered Kitty telling her about a chip that Logan had placed in his head to control him when he became Weapon X. After what she had just heard from Scary Scientist maybe they would do that to her as well. She would become like Logan, no memory, only jumbled images and someone else controlling her.

She began to cry out of hopelessly and began pleading. But of course no one heard her due to the gag in her mouth. And if they heard, she doubted that they would have cared enough to help her. They were looking at her like she was some sort of animal, something less than human, and were going to do horrible things to her. And she couldn't do a thing to stop them.

The Scary Scientist came back in to the room and motioned for another younger scientist. The younger scientist then removed her gag.

"Please, please don't do this!" Rogue screamed, hoping someone would listen.

"Don't worry Mutant Subject 36, when you wake up you won't remember a thing. If you wake up, of course," Scary Scientist cooed to her before gesturing to the younger scientist.

She watched Scary Scientist move towards the other side of the room, where the sinks were situated. Rogue had seen enough medical TV shows to know what was about to happen. That was where the main surgeon would scrub up and once he was finished scrubbing up then they would begin.

One of the younger scientists came towards her, carrying a tray of things that Rogue couldn't see, but they clanked like they were metal. What she wouldn't give to be able to draw on Magneto's or Kitty's power right now.

That was it! She had their psyches locked away in her head, all she had to do was focus and bring them forward.

She focused hard on Kitty first, but she wouldn't come. She could hear the faint sound of Kitty in her head but she wouldn't come forward and try as hard as she might, Rogue couldn't make herself intangible and phase through the table.

Rogue then began to focus on Magneto to at least start to control what was on that tray, as the younger scientist had now set it down and had begun to organise whatever it was that was on that tray. But, again she couldn't seem to bring his ability forward. She didn't understand why it wasn't working. She had been working on this for over a year now, it should work.

"Now," came Scary Scientist's voice again, "We have fitted Mutant Subject 36 with our energy cancelling collar, just so she doesn't get any ideas. As you are aware, the energy cancelling collars suppresses mutant abilities, and since Mutant Subject 36 has absorbed many other mutant's abilities it is essential that her powers be suppressed. You have all heard of Mutant Subject 26, who so far has had nine failed escaped attempts. If we were not suppressing his mutant abilities with the collars than he could have blown out a wall and walked out. It is unfortunate that 26 has had years of extensive training which makes him difficult to manage. We use other methods to control him."

"Will 36 still have her knowledge of her extensive training?" One of the suited men asked as the younger scientist began to fill syringes with liquid. One clear liquid and one thick white liquid.

"Yes, and no. With extensive training comes instinct and what is colloquially called muscle memory. She will retain the ability to do what her training has taught her to do, but she will not retain the knowledge of how she attained it."

"You said that she has all of the people she absorbed in her head, will they still remain?" A uniformed man asked.

"No, we will remove all current memories. She may retain a shadow of them, but I doubt these people memories will be able to tell her anything. If a shadow remains it will only a shadow of the powers that she has absorbed."

"What do you expect to use 36 as?" A uniformed man asked.

"Well, Mr Stryker and Colonel Trask have expressed interest in her. I expect she will absorb as many mutants as she can and then we will use her to police and destroy the mutant menace. After that, it'll only be the cost of one bullet to complete eradicate these abominations from the pages of history. Now, once Dr Kent has finished anaesthetising the subject we can get started. If you would like to stay and watch I do warn you it will be about five hours long, but if you will follow my assistant Miss Jackson, she will take you to one of our conference rooms for some refreshments," Scary Scientist said pleasantly to the collected group of horrible uniformed and suited men. Rogue watched as all the men collected left from the room behind the glass, leaving Rogue alone with the assortment of terrifying scientists who were focused on operating on her brain.

The younger scientists had been fairly quiet during Scary Scientist's question and answer session, as well as his lecture, but now they all seemed to be full of activity and noise. The machines had started up and had begun to whir and tick and beep. Other pieces of medical equipment had been brought out and were currently being attached to the table. The younger scientist that brought out the tray was now approaching her with what looked like canulas. She was watching him so intently she did not notice the other scientist behind her head bringing down an oxygen mask. The mask was releasing a gas that had a slight smell to it, but that could have just been the plastic of the mask.

As the mask began pumping oxygen into her body the younger scientist placed the canula into her arm. Then he reached around and placed another one into the other arm. He began to attach saline drips to the canulas before turning back to the tray to retrieve the syringes. That was when Scary Scientist decided to talk to Rogue again.

"Now 36, Dr Kent is going to put you under and then we shall begin." Scary Scientist cooed again before signalling to the younger scientist, who was obviously Dr Kent.

Dr Kent then raised the white coloured liquid filled syringe and pumped it into her body.

Rogue immediate began to feel sleepy and everything became blurry. She tried to focus again on drawing someone, anyone's power to aide her, but she was too woozy and the world had become to fuzzy. She tried to focus on the people again but they seemed to be moving farther away, they were definitely sounding like they were miles away.

She tried to stay awake. They can't operate on her if she was still awake after all.

But she couldn't.

Once again, Rogue's whole world went black.

Though, this time, it was for the last time.

Rogue would never open her eyes again.

* * *

><p>So, theres Remy.<p>

please rate and review.


	5. Chapter Five

Hello,

sorry this is late, but life has been a little hectic.

TFG

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

The entire world was dark.

And quiet.

Was the whole world supposed to be dark and quiet, shouldn't there be some noise somewhere.

Wait, there was some noise, but it was far away and muffled. And why was it still so dark?

She didn't understand. Why was the world so dark?

Her mind was too groggy to figure it out.

Oh, her eyes were closed. That's why the world was dark. She tried to open her eyes to shed some light on this weird feeling, but her body wasn't obeying her. She could barely move. Why couldn't she move?

And why did her head hurt?

Nothing made any sense, and it all seemed to be confusing and fuzzy.

She tried to open her eyes again, and this time her body started to obey, but the movement was slow and pained. Her eyes were finally opened though it didn't really help. The world was still dark, but not as dark as it once was and slightly hazy. It was too much so she closed her eyes again to try and think some more.

Something wasn't right but she didn't understand what was wrong or why. Her brain wasn't functioning normally; it was like everything was slowed down and foggy.

The girl tried to move again, but everything was tense and sore, like she had run a full marathon and she did not have the energy to try and move her body again. Though, she knew she had to try and make sense of this weird, dark world.

No, she would try to move at the very least, besides the stiffness in her muscles was easing a little. Maybe moving little bits will ease her aching muscles. It was almost as if she hadn't moved in a few days and her body was complaining over the sudden movements.

She scrunched up her brow and tried to concentrate on bringing her hand towards her face, but the command seemed to be slow as if her body was not used to moving and the signal was being delayed somewhere along the way.

When her hand eventually arrived at her eyes she felt something very strange, but what was it.

It wasn't the flesh she would have expected to feel around her eyes. It was soft, and cottony, like some type of material. But, why would there be material covering her eyes, though it could explain the darkness.

The girl sat up slowly and deliberately, and once she was sitting she brought her other hand to her face and let her fingers delicately follow the strange softness. It wasn't just on her face, it seemed to go around her whole head, but there was something missing from her head. Something that should be there but was missing.

She ran her fingers around the soft thing again, and it went underneath it. Now she could feel flesh.

It was a bandage. She had a bandage wrapped around her head. But why would she have a bandage around her head, and why had it taken so long to realise that the soft, cottony thing was a bandage. Surely, that should have been her first thought.

She let her fingers pass over the bandage again until she found something small and hard. The safety pin that held the bandage together, all she would need to do was undo the bandages and then everything would make sense.

She stalled when she had the safety pin off.

Was it really a good idea to take off the bandages by herself? What if there was something really wrong with her, she could do more damage than good if she were to take her bandages off too soon.

She should get someone's attention so they could help her.

And tell her what's wrong.

"Hello," she rasped in a pained Southern drawl. Was that her voice?

It sounded strange and foreign to her ears. It also sounded hoarse and strained, like it hadn't been used in a while. That must be the problem.

"Hello," she called again, this time a little louder, and still no one answered.

What if there was no one there and she was alone. After all, the world was strangely dark and quiet. No, someone had to be there. She couldn't have been left alone in a hospital with bandages around her heard.

And her brain was still so fuzzy; she still couldn't make sense of anything. If she could see then she could start to understand.

Cautiously, she began to unwind the bandages but kept her in the dark. Once the bandages were off the world became a lot lighter, but should she open her eyes again.

"Hello," she called out again, just to make sure that if there was someone there they would know that she was here. Again, no one answered her, but at least her voice was sounding stronger. Although, her throat hurt now. She could really use a drink of water.

She needed to see what was around her.

The girl took a deep, calming breath before slowly opening her eyes to a bright white, slightly fuzzy world. So she closed her eyes again and waited. She took a few more deep, calming breaths before opening her eyes again.

She blinked a few times and the world around her came into focus.

And it didn't make anymore sense then it did when the world was dark.

She was in a big white room, well almost all white. There were three white walls and one glass wall. And there were people moving around outside the glass, so why did no one answer her when she called out surely they could hear her. Or maybe, the glass was too thick. That must be the reason no one came when she called, they couldn't hear her through the glass.

She looked around her room again. There was a sink and a toilet in the room, but no mirror. There were also two blue circles painted on the wall, near the glass. Other than that the room was bare, well except the bed she was currently sitting on which wasn't very comfortable and only had one flat pillow, a thin blue blanket and a white sheet.

Why was everything blue and white?

The place didn't exactly look like a hospital, but what else could it be.

She put her hand to her head again running her fingers through not much hair. That was what was missing, her hair was gone. It was like it had all been shaven off recently, but was starting to grow back so it was slightly longer than stubble and felt really fuzzy. It was a funny feeling, this fuzzy haircut. She let her hand run up and down her head until she found something that felt different.

It felt like plastic knots, and the skin underneath felt very tender. So much so that she winced in pain when she felt it. She let her finger trace the middle of it. It wasn't very big, maybe an inch or two, and not very wide. It must be a cut of some sort; yes she could feel the line down the middle where the scab had formed.

That was definitely strange, but so far everything was strange.

It was all confusing. Her brain wasn't making sense of anything and her thought processes were too slow to start finding an answer.

The girl finally looked down at herself.

She could see chipped black nail polish on her short nails, but other than that there wasn't anything really distinguishable.

She was wearing blue cotton pyjama like pants, with a thin, white, cotton, long sleeved t-shirt. She was also wearing gray slippers but no socks. There was also some kind of cuff around her wrist. She tried to look at it more closely. It seemed to be made of a leather like material, with a metal plaque on it. There was something written on the metal, but her sight was still slightly blurry so she couldn't really read what was written. That would not do.

She blinked a few more times, and rubbed her eyes before willing them to get focused. She looked down at the metal cuff again.

"Mutant Subject 36, Energy absorption, May 30th 1986, female," she read slowly. Well, that didn't help much. What was the point of wearable ID if it didn't provide any form of identification, and she had no idea what `energy absorption` meant.

Would she normally wear something like this?

Maybe she really was in a hospital, but shouldn't there be some kind of equipment around her.

She didn't remember an accident.

Her brain was starting to come back into some form of focus.

She thought back to try and remember a car accident, that would seem the likely cause to be in hospital with a head injury.

But she couldn't remember anything about the last few days.

Actually she couldn't remember anything for last few weeks.

Her brain was focusing more, but only on the blackness that was in her mind. There were no fuzzy pictures or random shadows of memory.

It was complete darkness.

She tried to think back further, to see if any event leapt out from the depths of her mind, but nothing came. It was as if there was nothing there.

"Ok," the girl thought, panic racing through her body as her breathing started to get shallower, "lets start with something easy. My name, everyone has a name."

So, she sat and concentrated, willing her brain focus on a word that she would of heard several times a day, everyday of her life.

Again, only darkness answered her plea.

"This is ridiculous, how does anyone forget their name!" the girl exclaimed in a frustrated manner.

She tried to get up, but her legs still felt stiff and groggy. She must have been unconscious for a while after that accident, because there had to have been an accident. She was dressed in hospital clothes and had a big closed wound on her head. There must have been an accident, and that would mean that someone brought her to hospital and someone would have had to call her parents to tell her what happened and someone would be waiting to see if she was alright.

Parents; that was something else to try to focus on. She willed her brain to recall their faces, their voices, anything.

No, only darkness again. Something was very wrong, there had to be something that she could remember. The terror of her situation was starting dawn on her.

Her legs didn't feel as stiff anymore; the adrenaline was coursing through her body. She needed to find something, anything, that would give her a clue to what happened to her and who she actually was.

She was on her feet, after a slight stumble, and began to pace around the room to find something that had her identity on it. She glanced around quickly, but there were no drawers, tables or chairs. The room was just as bare as it had been ten minutes ago. She dropped to her floor to look under the bed, maybe there were storage boxes under there, but there was nothing under the bed except a vent in the wall. She couldn't even find a mirror or any reflective surface so there was no hope of seeing her own face to trigger the memory of her identity.

She was really panicking now. She ran to the glass wall, and started to pound on the glass.

"Help, help me!" She screamed, tears running freely down her face, but no one answered her. No one looked at her and what she saw out of the glass terrified her.

There were other people in rooms just like hers. They were dressed the same as her, but something was definitely wrong with them. They looked quite strange. There was a man with bright purple scales all over his body and he was lying in the middle of his room curled into a ball and not moving. There was another man with green hair pacing up and down his room, muttering to himself. There was a woman with very pale skin just staring off into space. There was something very wrong here. These strange people looked like caged animals, the ones that had given up the fight. The purple man looked like he might have even died.

The others walking around weren't any more comforting than those in the rooms. There were uniformed men walking around and they were all armed. There were also men and women walking around in white lab coats. They were the scariest looking. They had things floating in jars and were making notes on the poor people in the rooms, but they weren't helping them at all. It looked like they were studying them.

What was this place?

"I'm having a nightmare," She said quietly to herself though the tears that were falling down her face.

"This isn't real!" She sank to her knees on the floor.

"This isn't happening!" Her breathing was becoming more and more rapid and she was starting to get light headed. She needed to find some answers.

"Someone, please, _please_, help me!" She screamed again, and waited for answers.

No answers came, but the darkness was feeling so oppressive. She needed to get out. She had to get out.

She had no idea how she was suddenly standing, but she was up and moving. She threw herself against the wall, against the glass. Hammering with her fists and kicking out, her knuckles burst and blood was trickling down her hands and leaving marks on the pristine white walls. Though she didn't notice the pain, in her panic she didn't notice anything, all she wanted to do was to get out.

She was screaming out again, but had no idea what she was saying. All she was aware of was the suffocating darkness that was going to drown her.

It was the screaming that woke him up. That horrid, fearful scream that tore at your heart strings and froze your gut. The type of scream that even the hardest of men could still be frozen by. If it wasn't for that scream he would have rolled over and kept his unusual eyes closed and tuned it out, like he had done everyday for eight months and tried to remain in the blissful ignorance of his own imagination. After all, if he didn't see the cell that he occupied then he could be anywhere else in the world and not in some made scientist based horror movie.

Yet today Remy didn't. He opened his eyes to look around his white washed hell hole that was currently his life.

He could hear pleading, and screaming, and crying. He had to think for a second to realise what was happening as he hadn't heard anything like this in weeks. Usually everyone just sobbed quietly to themselves.

"She finally woke up then," Remy said quietly to himself.

The Hellion, as he referred to her as, had been unconscious for five days and he was beginning to worry that she had just passed away in the night. It had, after all, happened before. Though, he had never seen a body taken away and when he asked Kevin yesterday he had assured him that she was in fact still alive just unconscious after the surgery.

Remy had asked Kevin what they did to her during the surgery, but Kevin had no idea. He was just a guard and really didn't need to be kept in the loop, all he was ever really told was each mutants powers and whether they cause too much trouble. It must have been something bad though, as she was gone for a good seven hours before being wheeled to her containment cell, unconscious and with bandages wrapped around her head. It had covered her eyes and the top of her scalp leaving the bottom of her head bare, so Remy was able to see a little of what they had done. They had obviously washed off all her make-up giving her skin a beautiful glow, but they had also shaved her head. That was too bad, Remy had thought, she had beautiful hair that he would have loved to get his fingers tangled in and now it was all shaved off. That would be really upsetting for anyone to suddenly wake up and have no hair, he had experienced it himself a few months back. Remy subconsciously ran a hand through his auburn hair, that was now hanging around his ears and sighed.

Each day after her arrival to the base Remy had woken up and tried to call out to her through the vent between their cells, but she never responded. He hoped that she wouldn't immediately go off the deep end when she awoke, it would be nice to have someone to talk to, other than Kevin, someone who understood what he was going through. He had tried when he first arrived, with the girl who had previously occupied the Hellion's cell, but she had been completely unresponsive and only muttered to herself before she stopped vocalising completely. Besides, the Hellion looked like a lot more fun than anyone else in the complex. Anyone who could take down thirty-four armed guards and five scientist before succumbing to knock-out dart was definitely someone he would like to know better. Remy had watched those injured personnel hobble away after she was subdued and had gotten quite a laugh from it.

During the last five days Remy had been taken out of his cell. He didn't even realise it until he woke up and with his arm covered in bandages. Apparently, they weren't taking any more chances with him. It seemed they had knocked him out while he was sleeping, experimented on his skin, again, and just dumped him back in his cell. Kevin had told him that he wasn't out for very long, only a few hours this time. Remy had told him that that information really didn't make him feel any better, as at least before they had given him plenty of warning that he was going to be a lab rat again but now they were not even giving him a chance to fight. Just one more way they were de-humanising him.

Remy closed his eyes and listened to the sounds coming out of the next cell. She was panicking, and irrational. She was lashing out against the cell and was going to hurt herself soon. Or they would turn on the nitrogen gas or the knock out gas between the cells.

She was crying and screaming, and pleading for help. They all had pleaded for help at some point, but she was asking for something specific. She kept on repeating that she doesn't remember.

"They operated on her brain," Remy said to no one in particular as he opened his eyes in sudden realisation of the horror she was now experiencing. They had operated on her brain and she couldn't remember anything before today, anything before waking up in a crazy scientist run prison.

"No wonder she's gone off," Remy said solemnly. He couldn't fathom the terror she was feeling. His memories were one of the few things that had kept him going during his first few months here, and to have those taken away, well its just barbaric.

"Hello!" He called out to her, but he got no response. He tried again and again to call out, but she seemed to be beyond hearing him.

Remy Lebeau had always been a quick thinker and someone who could take advantage of any opportunity presented to him. It was one of the reason he was the best at his trade, but how could he reach her. She was in the other cell which was separated by a solid wall and a couple of armed guards. Actually, not a solid wall, there was a vent between them, under the bed. Surely that's where the vent was in her cell too.

The world had started to close in on her. The darkness of her mind causing everything around her to be in sharp and dangerous contrast within the stark white cell. Nothing else could penetrate her fear of the unknown, the only thing she could do was pace around and try to fight whatever demon was coming out to get her.

"Hey!" Called a disembodied voice. It sounded far away at first, but it started to get closer on repetition.

"Hello!" She screamed, while whirling around looking for the disembodied voice.

"I need you to calm down, and take deep breaths," the voice said calmly. It sounded concerned for her and a little friendly, but what it was asking her to do was impossible.

"Ok, where are you?" the girl said, though she wasn't calming down or taking deeper breaths. She was still breathing very shallowly and was in danger of passing out.

"I'm in the next cell, you need to calm down now," the calm voice said more determinedly.

"I… I can't! I don't know… I don't know anything!" The girl screamed again, whirling around to find the voice, her panic rising again.

"Listen to me _chèrie_, you need to calm down. Do you see a bed?" the disembodied voice said firmly.

"A… what?" the girl asked, suddenly calmer due to the strange question.

"A bed, do you see a bed?" the voice asked.

"Yeah, it's next to the wall," she answered, her breathing evening out and becoming deeper and steadier.

"Look under the bed, you'll see a vent," the voice said.

"A vent?" she breathed out, and without much delay she was on her hand and knees crawling under the bed to find the vent.

It was dark in the vent but she could make out something glowing red past the darkness and a hand reaching into the vent.

"Give me your hand _chèrie_," said the voice.

The girl lay on her side and reached her hand into the vent. The bars were wide enough to get most of her forearm through, which was lucky as it looked like he couldn't reach much further through the vent.

She didn't really need to think twice, she needed to feel something. She reached forward and grasped his hand.

His hand felt strong and warm, with scars running all over his palm and callused fingers. He began to run his thumb over the back of her hand in slow, small circles. It felt reassuring and her breathing calmed down, and the tears stopped.

"I'm Remy," the voice said soothingly. It was deep and rich, like chocolate, with a strange accent that she couldn't place. It was comforting and with the soft movements of his thumb on her hand she had finally calmed down.

"Where am I?" she asked him quietly.

"The worst place in the world, but don't worry _chèrie_, I'm here for you," Remy said firmly but reassuringly.

"What happened to me?" she asked.

"They brought you in and they did something to your mind, I think," Remy answered honestly.

"Why?" She asked.

"I don't know," Remy answered while still continuing his soft ministrations on her hand.

"Why am I here?" she asked as her eyes started to water again.

"You're here cause you're a mutant, and those _bâtards_ are using us as lab rats," Remy said with a hint of anger and bitterness in his voice.

"But, why?"

"I don't know. What does your cuff say?" Remy asked.

"Um, Mutant Subject 36, energy absorption, May 30th 1986, female. Energy Absorption, what is that?"

"That would be your mutant power, so you take energy, I release energy. I can make potential energy change to kinetic energy, so they explode. It's quite cool to see when I make things go boom. Though these _maudit_ collars stop me from just blowing a hole through the wall and walkin' out," Remy said ruefully.

"Collars?" She asked.

"Yeah, the one around your neck _petit_," Remy answered, subconsciously stroking his own collar while the girl felt her neck quickly but not feeling anything but the soft flesh of her own neck.

"I'm not wearing a collar," the girl said with a hint of concern in her voice.

"Must not be that worried bout you then _petit_, cause they put the collars on most. Or maybe they just weren't expecting you to wake up today," Remy said calmly, rubbing reassuring circles on her hand. He had heard the slight panic rising in her voice again, and didn't want her to hyperventilate again.

"What do you think is gonna happen to us?" She asked.

"I don't know _chèrie_, but Remy be here for you."

"Why?" She asked.

"We all gotta look after each other _chèrie_. I've been here a while and I've seen what happens to the ones who don't have anyone to talk to." Remy answered honestly, again. He wanted to give her all the information he could without scaring her too much. Though, after waking up without any memories finding out facts would have made him feel better, hopefully it would be the same for her.

"How long you been here Remy?" She asked him with so much concern in her voice that it made his breath hitch.

"Bout eight months," He answered.

They were silent for a few moments while the girl digested what Remy had told her. It all seemed to fanciful to be true. She was captured by mad scientist to experiment on her who just happened to take away her memories too. And what about this power Remy had told her about, if she could absorb energy why wasn't she absorbing Remy. The thought made her stomach twist in knots, like she should be absorbing him, but for some reason she wasn't.

"How do the powers work?" She asked him.

"You don't remember your powers either?" Remy asked, completely shocked.

"No, I don't remember anything at all," She answered, "I don't remember my name, my family, my past, anything. It's all black."

"I'm so sorry _chèrie_, no one should have to go through that," He said softly. He could hear her crying through the vent and felt her holding his hand more firmly. He knew she needed this, she needed just to mourn the death of her old life so he let her hold his hand in a death grip and cry. He wished he could be in the next cell with her, holding her while she cried out the pain, but if this was all he could do then it was better than nothing.

She had fallen asleep at some point, her grip had slackened and the crying had stopped, but Remy still held her hand in his and continued drawing small circles on the back of her hand.

It was dark in the vent that linked the containment cells, and he was sure that she couldn't really see him through the vent. But he could see her due to his unusual eyes that can see in the dark, and she was just as ethereal as she was the day she arrived, but now she seemed so young and vulnerable.

Her hair had been shaved off right to the scalp leaving a thin layer of fuzz, but he could still see the two colours in her hair, chestnut and platinum. When it grew back it would look beautiful. Her skin was pale, like alabaster stone and completely flawless. She had quite an angular face with high cheekbones and a straight nose, but it didn't look harsh on her, it looked fairly regal.

He couldn't see much of her body, and what she was wearing did not compliment her at all but from what he could see he was impressed. He could tell from her arrival that she was in great shape, after all she did beat up almost forty people just within the base, but he couldn't see that much when she was wearing her thick leather pants and baggy t-shirt while kicking several asses. Now though, lying on her side asleep on the floor, Remy could fully appreciate the body before him. It was fully formed and very womanly, you could see her curves as her loose fitting clothes fell closer to her as she slept soundly. She had a tiny waist, but bigger hips and breast. A perfect hourglass that many women would pay huge some to achieve. He could see from the toned arms that her head was lying on that she obviously worked out, but not to the extent that she lost her feminine curves.

She looked so young and peaceful, and perfect as she slept. She had said that her cuff put her birth date in May 1986, so that meant that she was only just 18, if Remy's math was correct, it should be June 30th today. That would mean that she probably just graduated High School too, but she didn't remember anything so she probably couldn't tell him if that was true. Looking at her again, he would think she was only 16 or 17, and without a care in the world. She should be preparing to go to college or have an adventure, not be trapped like a rat in a mad scientist run laboratory.

"Remy?" A very sleepy, very confused, very feminine voice said from the other side of the vent. She must be from around Mississippi, thought Remy, with an accent that clear, it would be hard to confuse.

"Right here _ma chèrie_," Remy said back through the darkness.

"I hoped that it was a dream," She said sadly, "I hoped that when I woke up I would be at home, in my bed, with my family around. I hoped I would have remembered my name."

"We'll figure it out _chere_, don't worry," Remy said sweetly.

"Mutant Subject 36," suddenly came a very stern voice.

"_Chèrie_, do what he says and everything with be ok, if you need to talk I'll be able to hear you," Remy said with a very serious tone as he let go of her hand and moved out from under his bed.

"Mutant Subject 36!" the stern voice called again, so the girl slid out from under the bed and walked slowly towards the glass, watching the stern voiced man watch her. He was one of the armed men she saw earlier, who was obviously one of the guards. He wore what looked like black army clothes and a black cap. She could see the baton on his right hip and a hand gun on the other.

"Mutant Subject 36, face the wall and put your hands in the blue circles. Keep facing the wall until your informed otherwise. If you do not comply with my instructions or try anything you will get the liquid nitrogen gas that will be fired from above the glass, or you will be punished by lose of meals. Nod if you understand 36." The stern voiced guard said, and 36 nodded.

"Put your hands in the blue circles and face the wall," the guard repeated and 36 did as she was told and put her hands in the circles and faced the wall. Once she had she heard a seal open and metal drawer slide open and then close again with a loud clang.

"Meals are served three times a day, once you hear the drawer close you can move." The guard said shortly before turning and leaving to deliver more food.

36 looked down at the tray that was now on the floor. It contained a single bowl with what looked like a pale stew and a glass of water. There was also a small chunk of bread that looked a little stale. She picked up the tray and went to take it over to her bed so she could talk to Remy while she ate. She could hear the guard yelling at him through the bed, and she was assuming he was yelling bad words back at him. The stern guard was threatening to walk away with his food and that's when she heard Remy be quiet and the drawer in his cell open and close.

"Is the food as bad as it looks?" 36 called out to the next cell.

"Worse, but Kevin _assures _me that it is nutritonally balanced and has all the vitamins and nutrients our bodies need. But, if that's the case I wouldn't be losing as weight as quickly as I am," Remy said back to her, "I would recommend you eat it slowly and imagine your eating anything else."

"Thanks. Who's Kevin?" 36 asked as she cautiously took a spoonful of the thin stew.

"The one nice guy in the place, he works Thursday through to Monday, so he'll be back in a few days. He checked up on you for me while you were out cold. When you didn't wake up after the first day I got a little worried," Remy answered while eating his own stew.

"How long was I unconscious for?" asked 36.

"Bout five days," Remy answered shortly. Five days was a long time, thought 36.

"Why did you care?" She asked.

"Well," Remy said as he set his empty bowl down next to the drawer, "When you came in it was the most interesting thing I'd seen for a long time _chèrie_, and I wanted to talk to you after that."

"What do you mean by that?" 36 asked.

"Well, ma _chèrie_, you came in with a shriek of rage. You fought off over thirty guards, knocked a few unconscious, broke some bones, and basically just raised hell before they hit you with a knock out dart. It was like you were an avenging angel, sent from the very depth of hell to make the _bâtards_ pay from what they had done to all the mutants. It was mesmerising."

"I don't remember any of that," 36 said sadly. How could she have fought off so many people if she couldn't remember how to do it.

"You'll get them back _chèrie_," Remy said simply.

"How do you know? And don't call me that!" 36 screamed back through the wall.

"Well _chèrie_, I don't want to call you 36 so until we think of something else you'll be _chèrie_ to me," Remy said with uncontained glee in his teasing voice making her laugh for the first time since she woke up earlier. It sounded beautiful, Remy thought, this girl was built for laughing and he wanted to keep making her laugh. It would be one of the best defences they would have against the crazed fanatics.

The reprieve from earlier didn't last very long. The stern guard had informed the head crazy scientist that Mutant Subject 36 had finally awakened after her surgery.

"That's encouraging to hear," the scary scientist said, "I want her brought to examination room 4 at two o'clock."

"Yes Sir, Professor Thompson," the stern guard said before leaving. It was one thirty now, so he had to get her ready.

"And I want her conscious!" Professor Thompson called after the guard, "And don't touch her bare skin if you can help it!"

Examination room 4 was like any other room at any other doctor's clinic around the world. Except the chair that the patient sat on had manacles on the arms and legs of the chairs to keep the patient still. This was the room where they would actually talk to their Mutant captives.

Remy and 36 had spent most of the day just chatting randomly about insignificant things, it was nice. Remy thought it would be best not to talk about anything of consequence after the heavy burden of information he gave her earlier. So instead, he started to tell her about some of the places he had see on his travels around the world. Currently he was telling her about Paris, but when they noticed the four guards walking towards their cells they instantly stopped and they weren't carrying food. They had obviously come to take one of them into the laboratory part of the complex.

"Mutant Subject 36, face the wall and put your hands in the blue circles. Do not move until you are told or you will get a dart. Now move!" The stern voiced guard commanded.

"It'll be ok _chèrie_, just do what they say and you'll be fine," Remy said softly to her through their vent.

But 36 didn't want to do what she was told. She wanted to fight. They were, after all, the people who did this to her. So, she got up and put her hands in the blue circles and waited.

She heard the glass front of the containment cell move aside to allow the guards entrance into the cell. She could sense them behind her and she heard one of them take out something from a pocket. Handcuffs, maybe. She felt his hand on the sleeve of her long t-shirt and she snapped.

She didn't know how she did it, but something took over and she knew how to take the guards down. In one swift move the one who grabbed her arm was on the floor, on top of another guard and one of the other guards was on the floor clutching his stomach after the organ bursting kick she just planted on him.

There was just one guard left and she was going to tackle him before he could raise the alarm, but this one was more prepared. He swiftly took out the dart gun that was on his belt and shot her. It wasn't enough to knock her out but she felt so groggy and slow. Her knees couldn't support her full weight and she had to lean against the wall to keep herself upright.

"Do you think we wouldn't come prepared after dealing with that demon eyed freak or after your entrance last week? Dumb mutie bitch," the guard sneered at her just before coming up to her face and punching her in the stomach.

Pain burst behind the eyes of 36 as the guard then delivered a steel-toed booted kick to her abdomen while the other guards cheered him on. He was about to kick her again when his name was called over his radio, informing him that he was late bringing Mutant Subject 36 to the examination room. So the guard restrained himself to only just spit on her.

Two guards then forcible hoisted her up to her feet, before locking the handcuffs in front of her. She was half dragged, half marched out of the cell while Remy looked concerned at the corner of the glass. Of course, she was too drugged up to notice anyone else paying her any attention; she was only concerned with putting one foot in front of the other so that her toes wouldn't get scraped across the floor as they took her through the doors of the containment area into the laboratories.

She was waking up enough to notice the rooms on either side of her as she walked down the corridor of the laboratory area, and what she saw had a more sobering effect than anything else she could think of as she could see into every room. Each room had a large viewing window, so people could stand outside the experimentation areas and take notes, or just watch with sick and morbid curiosity or humour. She saw a mixture of all when she was being marched down the corridor. And now she knew what happened to all the mutants who died while in the "care" of the scientists as she could see one being dissected by four scientists while three guards watched and chuckled.

"Is this gonna happen to me?" She thought to herself as she was still being marched past experiments and dissections and discussions.

The guards finally stopped her outside a room that didn't have a viewing window. This filled her with so much fear that she couldn't move anymore.

"What kinda sick things do they do here!?" she thought, but it seemed that she was going get her answers soon as that was where the guards seemed to be dragging her to.

Though, once inside, it appeared to be nothing more than an office. The guards forcibly sat her on the chair in the middle of the room, cuffing her to it in the process.

After a few minutes of waiting in slight terror the door opened once again to reveal an older man, wearing a white lab coat and rather thick rimmed glasses. He was relatively tall, with a bald head, but he stood straight and dignified. '

"Well Mutant Subject 36, how are feeling today?" The man asked as he sat down, but she didn't answer, she just stared at the man in front of her. She felt like she should know him, but she couldn't place him at all.

"Um…" 36 started, but didn't know how to continue.

"What do you remember?" The scientist asked.

"Nothing," 36 replied, maybe this man could help her. He seemed to be a doctor, and doctors were supposed to help people.

"Good," The scientist said simply. This shocked 36, why was this man so happy that she couldn't remember anything.

"Fletcher!" The scientist shouted suddenly breaking 36 out of her internal thoughts. She was so confused.

"Fletcher, I want you to take Mutant Subject 36 by the arm with your bare hand," The scientist said.

"Ok Professor…" The man known as Fletcher said as he placed his bare hand on 36's bare arm. Everyone looked quite expectantly down at the bare hand and arm as they came into contact, but after waiting fifteen minutes nothing had happened.

"Thank you, Fletcher, that will be all for now," The Professor said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"What did that prove?" 36 asked when Fletcher had left the room.

"Why, that my theory was correct, your mutant powers have been reset. Now, you can go back to your cell, I don't need you for any more experiments for a few days at least."

36 had no idea what he meant, mutant powers have been reset? Theory?

She didn't even notice when the guards came back in to take her back to her cell.

* * *

><p>i'm not entirely happy with the end of this chapter, but it went through nine rewrites so i had to end it sometime.<p>

please rate and review.


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